By Mathew Galvao ‘17
Associate Editor-in-Chief
On Friday December 4th a water line was damaged near the Ash residence hall. The damage came from a water line break in the surrounding town of Andover sometime Thursday evening. The break set off an alarm in the Sakowich Campus Center due to low water pressure.
“There were some water line breaks in the town of Andover late Thursday. One of those breaks resulted in low water pressure, which set off an alarm Thursday evening in the Sak,” said Associate Vice President of Communications Jim Chiavelli.
The town fixed the issue with the water line and water was put back into the pipes. With the sudden rush of water, it damaged a valve and gasket on Merrimack’s campus close to the Deegan West residence hall. The leak that this caused sent a minimum water supply to that area of campus.
“When the breaks were fixed and water was fully pumped back into the lines, the sudden rush damaged a valve and gasket on campus, close to the 47 in Deegan West, sometime early Friday morning,” Chiavelli stated. “This caused a leak about six feet underground and limited water supply to parts of campus.”
On Friday Morning, Merrimack sent out a notice to students telling them that crews were on the scene of the damaged line and would be there from approximately 9am to 2pm, with water supply being shut down from that time.
“Water service was interrupted to Ash Centre, the Deegans and the Rogers Center for the Arts for part of Friday roughly from 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. while crews shut down water to stop the leak,” said Chiavelli.
Merrimack has worked with crews and contractors to resolve the issue. The college does not see something like this happening again after the repairs.
“The valve and gasket have been replaced – and I have to say, as someone who stood bundled up over a hole in the ground for part of the day Friday, those guys working down in the mud did a tremendous job under very, very unpleasant conditions,” Chiavelli explained,
“Given what we believe to be the origin of the problem, there’s no anticipation that we have a problem on campus with water lines.”
Photo by Jay Kenney
