ROCKWOOD – Highway 7 in Rockwood is reopening Wednesday afternoon after a late December watermain left a section out of commission for nearly two weeks.
On Dec. 23, a watermain break left Rockwood residents without water temporarily but closed the major thoroughfare between Carroll and Frederick Street.
Guelph/Eramosa mayor Chris White said the barricades should be coming down Wednesday afternoon.
He said the break caused pretty severe damage to the road.
“The road really got lifted up, a bunch of the gravel and stuff got washed out,” White said. “It was quite a lot of water pressure on the road.”
He noted this is a temporary repair to get the highway back open and more major work to the water pipes will begin in the spring to prevent this from happening again.
“These are original pipes from when the sewer system went in, in the late 70s,” White said. “We’re going to take the opportunity to go in and clean the road up and do a bunch of pipe replacement.”
This means the road will be closed again at that point but the mayor couldn’t say exactly when or for how long but there will be advanced notice and preparation ahead of time.
White commended the effort of township staff and contractors who worked through the night to restore water for residents.
“It was inconvenient but it wasn’t as bad as it could have been,” White said.
“At the end of the day, the detours and everything worked relatively well and people could still get through town.”
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