City crews finish repairs to sewer line on Hopley Avenue

Bucyrus city workers have finished repairs to a sewer line no one knew existed.

All that remains to be done is installation of a new manhole so the line can be maintained in the future, said Jeff Dunn, Bucyrus streets and sewers manager.

The problem was discovered when a sinkhole appeared on Hopley Avenue between East Lucas and Rogers streets, just south of Bucyrus Elementary School, a little more than two weeks ago, Dunn said.

"The guy running the sweeper found like a dip in the road, and by the time I got out and looked at it, it dropped some more," he said. "And then that afternoon, it caved in. And we found an old T in there; they had a piece of limestone over top of it. It just collapsed, is what it did."

Until it collapsed, no one knew the 12-inch combination sewer line even existed, Dunn said. It's right next to the city's main sewer line through town, the Buffalo Sewer.

After working off and on for about two weeks, depending on the weather, crews finished putting in the last piece of pipe on Friday. The new manhole is expected to be installed in a few weeks, then the road will be repaved in the spring. Workers also added the line to the city's sewer maps, so that in the future, "other people know that it's actually there," Dunn said.

This article originally appeared on Bucyrus Telegraph-Forum: City crews finish repairs to Hopley Avenue sewer line