Tonawanda officials hopeful to have Parker Boulevard re-opened later this week

Town of Tonawanda, N.Y. (WBEN) - After a major water main break shut down Parker Boulevard in the Town of Tonawanda near Harrison Avenue, crews have addressed the break, but the road remains closed to traffic. However, officials hope to have the roadway back open in a matter of days.

It was Saturday when crews in the town discovered a leak on Parker Boulevard, and while trying to shut down the water main, it suffered a catastrophic failure, destroying a fair amount of road.

"Basically, the road caved in in the area where the water line break was. Crews were able to shut down the main and keep the water service in place for everybody, and so basically now we've got water restored to everyone in the area," said Town of Tonawanda Supervisor John Flynn with WBEN. "The road has been temporarily filled in with gravel and leveled off, but the road is still closed off, though, because we have to permanently fix that road. I went by there on Sunday after church and went to take a look at it, and you had a huge hole in the ground that went down a good four or five feet. So to fix that road, it's going to take some doing."

Flynn is hopeful the roadway can be ready within the next couple of days for vehicular traffic, but acknowledges he can't give a definitive answer on a timeline.

"It's not a matter of fixing the water line anymore. Now it's a matter of fixing the road now. We have to fix that road and make sure that the road itself is safe to drive on," he said. "So the water crews are going to step aside and the highway crews now are going to step in place and fix that road. So hopefully it doesn't take more than a couple days."

Crews have officially determined the water main break at Parker Boulevard was caused by the heat and dry weather the region has experienced this summer. But it's not the only leak crews have discovered or been called to check out in the town.

"Since Friday night, we have repaired more than 10 leaks all across the town, and we are currently receiving more calls for leaks," Flynn noted. "From a geological standpoint, it's kind of the same thing that happens in the winter. In the winter, when it is extremely cold, the ground, the soil becomes frozen; and when the soil becomes frozen, it impacts the soil going down to the water pipes and causes the water pipes to shift underground. And when the pipes shift underground, that's when they crack and leak. The same thing happens - believe it or not - in hot weather. It doesn't happen as much. You see many more water line breaks in the winter time, but in the summer it also happens.

"We are just experiencing an extremely dry July and extremely warm weather, so when you see, because of the warm dry weather, cracks in the soil - which I saw last night on my front lawn when I was watering the lawn - that means that the soil, the ground is shifting because of the cracks. And when that ground shifts, it moves the water pipes, which causes the leaks and drains."

Given the occurrence of water main breaks in recent months across the region, Flynn is concerned with how well an aging infrastructure can further withstand the extreme weather conditions.

"The pipes that we have that were put in place all over Western New York back in the '20s and '30s - you're talking 100 years ago sometimes, extremely old pipes that we have in our grounds not just in Tonawanda, but in the City of Buffalo and all over Western New York. It costs money to replace them, to fix them, and unfortunately when you're spending millions-and-millions of dollars on fixing water pipes, that means the taxpayers, unfortunately, have to pay for that," Flynn noted. "They've got to pay for it with taxes and they've got to pay for on their water bills, which is something that as a homeowner in Tonawanda, I don't like. And again, my neighbors don't like it and the residents of the town don't like it. So it's a problem in fixing these water pipes, but that's a long-term problem."

In the short-term, Flynn's No. 1 priority with water main issues such as this is ensuring all residents remain with access to water.

"As of right now, even with all these other water line breaks all across the town, everyone has got water. That is due to our outstanding town workers, the water crews who are out there busting their hump 24 hours a day to fix these water line breaks," Flynn said.