UPDATE: Common Street Should Reopen By 9 P.M.

Good news from site of the water main break at Common Street and Chester Road.

• The water flow has been stopped and Belmont Public Works crews are as of 3:30 p.m. digging a trench around the 12-inch town water pipe that broke shortly after 11 a.m. 

• Common Street remains closed from Bay State/Warwick roads to the intersection of Payson/Palfrey roads

• Only one house on Common Street is without water service at 3:30 p.m. The neighborhood is using other waterlines including an older 8-inch line and the large MWRA pipe for water.

• It will take until approximately 5 p.m. before the area around the pipe can be cleared as there is a gas line nearby. Then a measurement will be made and a replacement pipe will be cut in the DPW Yard and then brought back with couplings. 
The actual replacement of the pipe will take 15 minutes. 

• Belmont DPW will then allow the pipe to refill with water and examine the flow until they are satisfied that it was not rupture or leak.

• Finally, at approximately 8 p.m., the hole will be backfilled with soil and some heavy equipment will drive over the roadway, which has a large bulge up to the middle of the street.

Give or take some expected delays, Belmont DPW expects the repair project will be complete by 9 p.m.