Water main burst in downtown Raymond

Photos by Jeff Clemens - Water main breaks in downtown Raymond.

Friday, April 20 a water main broke in the sidewalk between 2nd and 3rd Street on Duryea in downtown Raymond. Raymond Public works responded to and were on scene within minutes. The crew had to shut the water off in the area for several hours to make the repair.

"Well look where it is [former tree location on sidewalk] and you can kinda see what happened," Raymond Public Works Director Eric Weiberg stated. "You put stuff on top of utilities like this and this sort of thing happens. Not really much I can say about it."

Many locals traveling through and working in the area heard a loud rumble and then saw water shooting out of the ground. During the break water was shooting an estimated 12-15 feet into the air. Around the area of where the pipe burst, rock and asphalt were present from the force of the eruption.

The City of Raymond and Public Works have been in the middle of a stalemate over a push to replant trees in former locations like the one that suffered the pipe burst. "This has been a major concern of ours," Weiberg stated as he visited the site. "We have been going back and forth on the issue and I think this is an example of our concern."

Duryea Street was also shut down between 2nd and 3rd street so that crews could safely repair the line as they had to bring in heavy equipment to dig open and refill the area. This is the second line break Raymond has seen in the last few months. The sidewalk in the area of the burst was also one of the areas replaced through a state grant. No sizeable damage was present at the scene.

No further information was available at the time of reporting.