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Sewage to Be Diverted from Broken Times Square Line

May 13, 2004 – A Christiansted sewage leak was temporarily repaired Thursday after a deteriorated 4-inch pipeline crumbled earlier this week, sending a flow of fecal matter into the Times Square area, government officials said.
A Planning and Natural Resources Department release issued on Tuesday advised the public to avoid the areas around the sewage outflow. It cited the Public Works Department as saying the leak was from a sewage line "running into a storm drain situated between Market, King and Company streets."
Joseph Bradford, Public Works utilities manager, said a layer of asphalt about two inches thick had been removed from a section of road in connection with the renovations taking place in the Times Square area. This left the pipeline covered with only a layer of soil which offered no buffer from the heavy traffic, he said, and vehicles driving through the area resulted in the collapse.
"There was no fault of DPW or the contractor on site," Bradford said, adding that the pipeline that crumbled is more than 30 years old.
"We are working in a sensitive area," Bradford said. "It's like veins and arteries." He said Public Works engineers, archaeologists at the site and the contractor met on Thursday and devised a plan to reroute the sewage line in a manner that "will address all issues."
According to Stella Saunders, Public Works waste management spokeswoman, "As part of the rehabilitation of Times Square, the project contractor, Tip Top Construction, will change the line to a 6-inch lateral pipeline." Besides the deterioration, she said, the 4-inch pipeline was clogged.
Meantime, she said, workers unclogged the broken line and patched it temporarily until the whole pipeline can be rerouted.
"As far as we know, no business has been interrupted" as a result of this week's sewage spill, Saunders said.
Dilip Singh, owner of Singh's Fast Food on King Street across from Thomas Bakery, said the spill, about a block away, did not affect his restaurant. But he said he did hear another business person discussing the leak on Wednesday.
The DPNR release stated that anyone wanting additional information about water quality should call its Environmental Protection Division at 773-1082.
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