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Tuesday was a long, long day for LUB crews
TOP PHOTO: Ronald McGhee watches as Dalton Phillips adjusts the sup pump to keep the water pumped out of the area where the backhoe is working.
LAFOLLETTE, TN (WLAF)- “You just never know how long a repair like this is going to take. It could be four hours, and I hate to think, but it could even be longer than that,†said Ronald McGhee with LUB. The 34-year LUB veteran and crews dealt with the longer scenario, nearly 12 hours longer to repair a water main break.
With temperatures in the 20s, the call of the water leak came in at 9:14 Tuesday morning. LUB crews were on the scene within minutes and began assessing just what was going on with the water line that rests way below East Central Avenue.
Signage went up and orange cones went down as LUB crews, La Follette Police and TDOT officials worked to realign the Downtown La Follette traffic pattern. The break forced east-west traffic into the westbound lanes creating single lane travel and congestion. The traffic pattern change ran from 9th Street to Tennessee Avenue.
It wasn’t long after 6pm when David Wilson of LUB, watching the filling in of the large hole, said that the asphalt was on the way.
The water main was repaired and the pavement was put down around 7pm.
La Follette Fire and La Follette Pubic Works crews finished up the cleaning away of the mud, gravel and such and all four lanes of East Central Avenue were opened about 7:40pm.
(WLAF NEWS PUBLISHED-01/15/2025-6AM-PHOTOS COURTESY OF WLAF’S CHARLIE HUTSON)