Granby Street water main repairs to finish today

NORFOLK

The portion of Granby Street that's been closed since a water main broke Thursday afternoon is scheduled to reopen today.

The break occurred at about 4 p.m. at the intersection of Granby and Tazewell streets and shut down traffic from College Place to City Hall Avenue that night. The water was shut off by about 5:30 p.m. and Norfolk Utilities workers made repairs through the night.

Water was restored to the area about 8:45 a.m. Friday, said Harry Kenyon, utilities spokesman. 

Kenyon said the repair work was supposed to be completed by midnight Thursday and the road repaired and reopened in time for Friday morning’s commute.

But crews were having to get underneath old trolley tracks, cut through concrete and cobblestone and work on pipes that were installed in about 1887, said Johnny Grimsley, a utilities supervisor overseeing the repairs.

Repairs were progressing Friday, but the work is now estimated to continue through mid-day today, Kenyon said. They're supposed to wrap up around 1 or 2 p.m.   

The water main break forced water up through the street and flooded the intersection of Granby and Tazewell, said Battalion Chief Harry Worley, Norfolk Fire-Rescue spokesman. There was no construction in the area that could have caused the break, he said. No other damages were reported.

Kenyon said he didn’t yet know what caused the break.

Bryan McCombs, general manager at Snappers Restaurant on Granby Street, said he didn’t see the water initially break through the street, but ran out when he saw the water on the street.

“It pushed the street up and spilled out,” he said. “It was covering the sidewalks. It was a foot deep in some spots.”

At the time of the break there were about a dozen customers in the restaurant, and one ran outside to move his car from in front of AJ Gators Sports Bar and Grill, McCombs said. The water was just coming up to the bottom of his car when he moved it.

“It looks like it does when it floods a little on Granby,” McCombs said.

He said water pressure dropped until the water to the broken main was shut off. Snappers had been in danger of closing because of a lack of water, but was able to remain open.

“They came around to all the businesses to tell us what might happen,” McCombs said. “When they cut off the valve, it came right back on.”

Kenyon said later that water had to be shut off along Granby from College Place to Brooke Avenue while repairs were made. He didn’t know how many customers were without water as a result. 

Virginian-Pilot writer s Cindy Clayton and Kathy Adams contributed to this report.