Niskayuna water main repaired

PHOTOGRAPHER: Peter R. Barber

Niskayuna Water Department workers repaired a 20-inch water main in front of 1189 Mohawk Ave. after it ruptured Wednesday.

NISKAYUNA — Residents of 26 homes affected by a water main break near the intersection of Mohawk and Rosendale roads on Wednesday remained under a boil water order.

The order, issued by the Schenectady County Department of Health, was hand-delivered to each home.

Matthew P. Yetto, superintendent of the town’s Water and Sewer Department, said the break occurred Tuesday at 11:15 p.m. Crews worked through the night to repair the pipe, which Yetto said was part of a line installed during the mid-1960s.

“We had to turn the water main on Mohawk Road off about halfway up the road,” Yetto said, “so between Rosendale Road and about halfway up Mohawk Road the main was shut off.

“The entire main on that road is not bad,” Yetto also said. “You may get a break here and there just because of localized soil conditions.”

The hole in the road was filled by early afternoon and covered with stone. It will be paved Thursday, so the section of Rosendale and Mohawk will be open only to local traffic.

“It’s something that we have to work on every single year to ensure that we have budgeted for these infrastructure improvements,” said Supervisor Yasmine Syed.

“This is something we just have to make sure we’re doing consistently, making sure we are improving and repairing our infrastructure where we can so incidents like this don’t continue to happen,” Syed added.

Denise Murphy McGraw, who chairs both the Public Works Committee and Transportation and Public Facilities committees, praised Yetto’s work on the job.

Contact Gazette reporter Jeff Wilkin at 518-395-3124 or at [email protected]