Lewes BPW repairs second water main break
The Lewes Board of Public Works repaired a second water main break in as many weeks, this one at Savannah Road and McFee Street.
Tom Panetta, BPW board president, said they were alerted to a drop in water pressure around the 10:30 a.m., Dec. 15. He said crews dug into McFee Street, but were not able to isolate the location of the failure.
Panetta said they worked for 12 hours, eventually rerouting water from a 4-inch line under McFee Street to a 12-inch line. Water was then restored to homes in the area.
Crews returned the morning of Dec. 16 to open up Savannah Road to look for the break where the lines tie-in.
Panetta said they had to start working later to avoid drop-off time at Lewes Elementary School.
Crews briefly shut off water to nearby businesses, like Lloyd’s and Pivot Physical Therapy, Dec. 16, according to Panetta. He said there are no more planned outages.
He said BPW is hoping a contractor will come during the week of Dec. 22 to make permanent repairs, because school is not in session and there will be less impact on Savannah Road traffic.
BPW also repaired a break in a 12-inch line Dec. 8, on Gills Neck Road, near the Lewes drawbridge.
Panetta said the two failures are not related. He said neither one was caused by the recent cold weather, because the pipes are too far underground.
Bill Shull has been covering Lewes for the Cape Gazette since 2023. He comes to the world of print journalism after 40 years in TV news. Bill has worked in his hometown of Philadelphia, as well as Atlanta and Washington, D.C. He came to Lewes in 2014 to help launch WRDE-TV. Bill served as WRDE’s news director for more than eight years, working in Lewes and Milton. He is a 1986 graduate of Penn State University. Bill is an avid aviation and wildlife photographer, and a big Penn State football, Eagles, Phillies and PGA Tour golf fan. Bill, his wife Jill and their rescue cat, Lucky, live in Rehoboth Beach.
