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D.C. Water said repairs to the collapsed Potomac Interceptor are still moving forward, with help now from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.
Work to repair the collapsed section of the Potomac Interceptor is moving ahead, and with help from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, D.C. Water crews are working to stay on track toward restoring full flow by mid-March.
Sherri Lewis, a spokesperson for D.C. Water, said the water utility company has now gone more than two weeks without wastewater reaching the river.
“Today is actually the 15th day that we’re going into without any overflows,” Lewis said during a news briefing on Monday.
Lewis said crews had been working inside the damaged pipe for days, clearing out debris.
“We’ve had our crews actually inside the damaged section of the pipe, removing large rocks and debris,” she said.
Once the debris was out and engineers could get a closer look, Lewis said they realized the pipe walls were too unstable for workers to stay inside.
“They have pretty much cleared out that site, and as we were able to better assess the condition of the pipe, the immediate pipe sections from where it collapsed, it was determined that pipe was too compromised and it was unsafe for us to have workers inside the pipe manually assisting in removing that rock dam,” she said.
Lewis said with that safety concern, the team switched to a new approach, working to excavate a nearly 40-foot section between the damaged part of the pipe and “another access pit that we had created to access the Potomac Interceptor.”
She added that crews will stabilize the area, install shoring supports and then cut into the top of the pipe so machinery can remove the remaining rock dam.
Cost and repairs
Lewis said the cost of both the repair and the environmental cleanup has now reached about $20 million.
A federal emergency declaration, which came after a request from D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser last week for federal help, triggered support from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.
Col. Francis Pera, who leads the U.S. Army Corps’ Baltimore District, said they were notified Friday evening and arrived on site Saturday morning. He said they moved quickly to protect the repair work after stormwater from the American Legion Bridge and Clara Barton Parkway flooded the pumping area. They also worked to install several pumps by Sunday night.
“We already had three of those pumps in operation, safeguarding the pumps that D.C. Water is using to bypass the break in the Potomac Interceptor,” Pera said.
He said the Corps built a system to catch and divert stormwater from existing drainage areas, so it does not run across contaminated soil or overwhelm the bypass system.
“We’re catching through natural drainage in those ponds, and then we’re just diverting them. So that is an effort that will stay as long as it is required,” Pera said.
He also noted that the Corps’ work is aimed at helping D.C. Water keep to its schedule.
“We get to keep D.C. Water on track. We don’t want to take them off their path to their mid-March completion date for this initial repair,” Pera said.
Despite the collapse, Pera said the region’s drinking water remains safe.
D.C. Water said once full flow is restored, crews can shut down the bypass and begin the full environmental restoration along the river, creek beds and the C&O Canal.
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Mike Murillo
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