Pipe Installation

LEWES, DE - Work on a new water main crossing in the city of Lewes has begun after months of preparation. The beginning of this project comes roughly two months after the city experienced a water emergency due to a pipe failure in August. 

Crews were out fusing pieces of the soon-to-be water main when WBOC visited the site on Monday. Public works officials said the roughly 2000 feet of new pipe, which is 16 inches in diameter, will help support the city's other aging or damaged pipes. 

The pipe along the road.

General Manager of the Lewes Board of Public Works Austin Calaman said the new pipe will help provide water to the beach side of the city more reliably. 

"The beachside cannot sustain having one water main. This provides that redundancy, it's a lot larger, it's newer," Calaman said. 

Calaman said the project has been in the works since the beginning of the year and was expedited after the water emergency in August. 

Jacob Godwin, an assistant superintendent on the assembly project, said the new line hopes to avoid the issues of the previous pipes. 

"The original line was damaged by spud driven by a barge that was shallow inside the canal," Godwin said. "This line will be deeper than the original, and it won't ever be able to be touched by a spud or anything like that again."

After the pipe is assembled, it will feed under the Lewes-Rehoboth Canal. Calaman said, thatonce their project receives final approval from the United States Army Corps of Engineers, drilling under the canal to install the new pipe can begin.

"We're hopeful we get that this week and then, once we have that, there's nothing stopping these guys from drilling that pipe," Calaman said. 

The general manager said he hopes for drilling to begin November 4th.

Thomas Panetta, the President of the Lewes Board of Public Works, said he's hopeful about the new water main. 

"The 16-inch pipe will be able to completely feed the beach side," Panetta said. "Once it's in, we will go back and repair one of the lines crossing at the drawbridge so that we have a backup."

Board of Public Works officials saidif all goes smoothly, that they hope the new water main will be functional by the end of the year. If that's the case, they said those living and working on the beach side of the city can expect full restoration roughly around February. 

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