Lewes water main pipe pulled under canal
Construction of the new Lewes water main canal crossing is slightly behind schedule, but moving ahead.
Tom Panetta, BPW board president, said crews from Teal Construction pulled the new pipe under the canal to the American Legion Road side Dec. 21.
Panetta said they hit, what he called, a few stumbling blocks, but worked into the night to get the pipe through.
He said the pipe will now be fused to pipes on the Gills Neck Road and American Legion Road sides.
Panetta said while the project will not meet the goal of being completed by the end of the year, it will be finished in January.
The new canal crossing became more critical to the city’s infrastructure after the Aug. 20 failure of another main that runs under the canal.
Residents were left without water for hours. A boil water order was issued as a precaution.
The failure left the city with a single main to provide water to the beach side.
BPW expedited permits for the new canal crossing. Work began right before Thanksgiving.
BPW awarded a $1.794 million contract to Teal for the project.
Bill Shull has been covering Lewes for the Cape Gazette since 2023. He comes to the world of print journalism after 40 years in TV news. Bill has worked in his hometown of Philadelphia, as well as Atlanta and Washington, D.C. He came to Lewes in 2014 to help launch WRDE-TV. Bill served as WRDE’s news director for more than eight years, working in Lewes and Milton. He is a 1986 graduate of Penn State University. Bill is an avid aviation and wildlife photographer, and a big Penn State football, Phillies and PGA Tour golf fan. Bill, his wife Jill and their rescue cat, Lucky, live in Rehoboth Beach.
