City crews show depth and coordination in Wenatchee Avenue water main repair

WENATCHEE — When a major water main failed beneath Wenatchee Avenue on Dec. 29, the damage was immediate and dramatic: pavement collapsed, a large sinkhole opened in the roadway, and nine nearby businesses were affected. But city officials say what could have become a prolonged and expensive emergency instead turned into a showcase of how much work the city can now handle with its own crews.

Public Works Director Tom Wachholder told the Wenatchee City Council that the break occurred at about 10 a.m. that morning, when a 10-inch cast iron water main dating to the 1960s split open just north of Fifth Street. The failure ran roughly 20 feet along the pipe and was severe enough to wash out the sand beneath the roadway.

When city crews arrived with heavy equipment, Wachholder said, the street itself collapsed under the weight of the response vehicles.

The resulting hole required about 110 yards of gravel to backfill before the road could be stabilized. No one was injured, and the excavator involved sustained only minor damage.

Mayor Mike Poirier said he visited some of the affected businesses personally and credited city staff for not only fixing the break, but also helping business owners navigate the impacts and the reimbursement process. He said what stood out most was the breadth of the response across city departments.

He told councilmembers that staff from across the organization pitched in, regardless of job title, including employees from parks, public works, and even finance, some of whom were helping go door-to-door with information during the response.

Wachholder said the city was able to handle the entire repair internally, avoiding the need to declare an emergency and bring in outside contractors. That decision, he said, not only sped up the response but also avoided the higher costs associated with emergency contracting and prevailing wage requirements.

He described the response as a “big win for the community,” and said it highlighted both the skill and coordination of the city’s in-house teams.

As of this week, the roadway has been reopened with a temporary patch in place, though drivers can still see a heaved section of pavement, especially in the right lane headed northbound on the Avenue in front of LifeLine Ambulance, where the collapse occurred. Wachholder said crews are actively monitoring the repair and that a more permanent fix will be made later this year, which will require some additional lane closures.

He said the pipe that failed was part of an aging cast iron system installed six decades ago, and the nature of the break — a full-length split — explains both the speed and the severity of the collapse.

City officials framed the incident not just as an infrastructure failure, but as proof of growing in-house capacity.

Poirier said the response showed how far the city has come in its ability to manage complex, high-impact problems quickly and without outside help, emphasizing that the goal was always to get the street reopened and businesses back on their feet as fast as possible.

Wachholder said the city will continue to monitor the site and incorporate the incident into its longer-term planning for aging water infrastructure, but for now, he said, the focus is on maintaining the temporary repair until permanent work can be scheduled.

Andrew Simpson: 509-433-7626 or andrew@ward.media