A river ran through downtown St. John’s yesterday morning, buckling asphalt, creating a sinkhole, depositing gravel and silt and leaving many streets without water until midnight last night.
Hundreds of thousands of gallons of water gushed from Kings Road just above Bond and just below Rawlins Cross, threatening several properties, especially in lower sections along Duckworth and Water.
Jim Abbott, who owns 47 Bond at the corner of Kings, thought he would be facing a flooded rental house as he drove in from Conception Bay South.
When he saw the 6-8 inches of gravel in front of the house, he thought for sure that when he opened the door he would be in for a nightmare, but was shocked everything was dry.
It took a few hours to stop the flow as city workers had to turn off many valves in different areas. Sections of twenty-two streets were without water until midnight.
The line, which was hand-dug, was installed about a hundred years ago, laid only about 5 or 6 feet underground. With the use of modern equipment today, the lines are a good 10-12 feet underground.
Earlier Story
A large number of people will be without water for the next while as the result of a major break in the lines downtown St. John’s. But the water has finally stopped flowing from uptown to downtown. It looked like a river this morning running through Kings Road at Bond Street and down onto the lower properties carrying gravel, silt and broken asphalt.
City crews have begun digging up a sinkhole at Kings and Bond so the upper portion of Kings is closed as is Bond in front of Bishop Feild. No water got into the school.
Twenty-two streets or sections thereof will be without water until midnight tonight as the system has been turned off.
The following are affected by the water shutoff:
- Bannerman St (Gower St to Military Rd)
- Bolger’s Lane (Pilot’s Hill to End)
- Bond St (Cochrane St to Prescott St)
- British Sq (Gower St to Flavin St)
- Carew St (Military Rd to End)
- Cochrane St (Duckworth St to Military Rd)
- College Sq (Military Rd to End)
- Colonial St (Gower St to Military Rd)
- Cummings St (Colonial St to King’s Rd)
- Duckworth St (St. John’s Lane to Prescott St)
- Duckworth St (King’s Rd to Holloway St)
- King’s Rd (Duckworth St to Prospect St)
- King’s Rd (Gower St to Cummings St)
- Knight St (Military Rd to End)
- Military Rd (Cochrane St to Monkstown Rd)
- Nunnery Hill (Holloway St to Gower St)
- Pilot’s Hill (Bolger’s Lane to Gower St)
- Pilot’s Hill (Duckworth St to Gill Pl)
- Prescott St (Duckworth St to Military Rd)
- Prospect St (King’s Rd to Holloway St)
- Queen’s Rd (King’s Rd to Prescott St)
- Stewart Ave (End to Military Rd)
The following roads will be closed during repairs:
- Bond St (Colonial St to Flavin St)
- Cummings St (Colonial St to King’s Rd)
- Gower St (Colonial St to Flavin St)
- Hanley Pl (King’s Rd to Holloway St)
- King’s Rd (Duckworth St to Military Rd)
- Prospect St (King’s Rd to Holloway St)
- Queen’s Rd (King’s Rd to Prescott St)
People in the path of the torrent were afraid that water would find its way to their buildings including Dave Lahey. He used a snow scoop to divert the water away from his house on Kings Road.
His neighbour, Bert, knocked on his door just before 8:00 to tell him that a river was running through the area.
Lahey says water getting into the houses in that area could do some damage. Some have crawl spaces and some have basements.
Some of the houses are built on slate rock and are porous enough to allow water to easily travel through.
A small amount of water got into the War Memorial on Duckworth Street as most of it flowed down Duckworth and onto Water via the steps on either side of the Memorial. A business next to it, Mohamed Ali’s, was directly in the path, the owner says there was little to no damage to the restaurant.
— Brian Madore (@bmadorevocm) October 12, 2020
