Delay in road maintenance caused by heavy rains
The 600 block of Pickens Street, between its intersections with Blossom and Greene streets, will reopen this weekend.
A sewer pipe below the road surface broke last Thursday, according to Destin Goins, an assistant street superintendent for the City of Columbia, and the street was torn up to perform maintenance work.
The road was slated to reopen today, Goins said, but heavy rains on Saturday saturated the ground and kept a concrete fill from setting on time.
Workers poured cement Wednesday, Goins said, and the road will be ready for traffic by Friday if fair weather holds out or by Monday if it doesn't.
"The longer we can keep traffic off it, the better," he said.
The broken line and blocked road highlight issues with the city's aging sewer system.
"A lot of our lines need maintenance," Bill Davis, a wastewater engineer for the city, said. "We go out and look for them, but with 1,100 miles (of pipes), sometimes you miss one, and this one decided to give up. ...
"It just happens often — not terribly often, but more than we'd like them to."