HAVRE DE GRACE, Md. — 18-wheelers caught up in the closure of Revolution Street/Post Road in Havre de Grace having to make untimely U-turns while some potential customers bound for local businesses in the area gave up entirely.
“The people, they’ll come it eventually, but they’re not here today right now,” said Merrill Dougherty, who owns a local rental business, “A lot of them are griping, because they have to go out on 40 and turn around. You know. It’s a couple of miles round trip.”
Weather plays havoc in Havre de Grace
Crews shut down the state road after a major water line ruptured about five o’clock in the morning on Thursday.
“We have an eight-inch water main that basically split in half that we have to cut out, put new bands in and then probably about a five-foot section that we have to take out,” said David Morrill with the Havre de Grace Public Works Department.
A steep drop in temperatures overnight appears to be the culprit.
“It’s out of the norm,” said Morrill, “You’ve got ground movement whenever it gets warm/cold. You get ground movement and if there are rocks or anything under it, it just pushes it and splits the pipe so over time, it just happens.
The owner here at one nearby business, Always Recycling, says they never lost water service, but closing the road has cost them some business.
Others, like the Pepsi bottling plant, have been left in the dry in their main office building as has Merrill Dougherty’s business just across the street.
“Oh, it’s gone. There’s no water,” Dougherty assured us.
A temporary inconvenience for the owner and his employees who seem to be taking it in stride.
“Chesapeake Rent ‘All’,” I noted, “Today would be a good day for porta-potties, huh?”
“If I rented them. Yes,” responded Dougherty, “Actually, I had rented them to customers through a sub-rent, but that’s funny.”
