Baltimore City Department of Public Works Director Rudolph S. Chow, P.E. today provided an update on the infrastructure repairs on West Centre Street and West Mulberry Street.

West Center Street:

Restoration work on the underground infrastructure on West Centre Street is nearing completion. On April 23 a large section of roadway collapsed in the 100 block of West Centre Street in the Mt. Vernon neighborhood. The cause was the failure of a 72-inch sewer line, specifically a four-foot hole in the top of it. This sewer line is over 100 years old, with previous failures on adjacent Park Avenue in 1997 and 2012.

Work at the Centre Street location has included stabilization, installation of bypass mains, clearing debris from the sewer, placement of scaffolding, lining 1,100 feet of sewer, removing the sheeting and shoring, repairing and lining a 33-inch diameter storm drain, and partial backfilling.

Conduit repairs have just been concluded at this location, to be followed by conduit cable installation. Work on a new 10-inch diameter water line is also well underway. These tasks are expected to be completed by the middle of September. BGE will follow with permanent repairs to their lines, concluding on or about September 23.

Once all of this work is done, the street will be resurfaced, striped, and reopened by the first of October. This goal is subject to change depending upon weather conditions.

The estimated cost for the City’s work is placed at between $4 and $4.5 million.

 West Mulberry Street:

On July 4 a collapse several blocks away, in the 500 block of West Mulberry Street, was also caused by a partial collapse of the same sewer trunk line that resulted in the Centre Street failure. Because of this opening, it was determined that an additional 3,000 linear feet of sewer main needed immediate attention with cured-in-place pipe (CIPP) lining to eliminate the possibility of another failure. This will meet up with the portion of the main just completed on West Centre Street.

The Mulberry Street section of the sewer main is 80 inches in diameter and is made of brick and mortar. The lower portion of the broken sewer is still operable but is subject to overflow during periods of heavy rainfall because of the partial collapse.

Sewer bypass pumping has been delayed while City crews coordinated with State Transportation officials in order to design a safe method to bypass under the Howard Street Light Rail tracks, and with CSX officials to safely place it over the railroad tunnel that runs beneath Howard Street. The temporary sewer bypass has been established except under Howard Street at Franklin Street. Franklin Street is now closed, and DPW’s contractor is excavating deep pits for the tie-ins of the bypass. By the end of September, the pit boring and bypass tie-ins should be completed, and the bypass pumps activated.

Once that phase of the work is done it will take approximately three weeks to excavate the sewer on West Mulberry Street. That will be followed by cleaning of the sewer which should be completed by the second week of November.

Lining of the sewer should begin by the second week of November and will take approximately three weeks. If all goes as planned, and there are no significant weather setbacks, the street should be restored and re-opened by mid-December.

The preliminary estimated cost for this work is placed at between $6 and $7 million.