ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. – The construction at Central and Atrisco in northwest Albuquerque has been going on for a few weeks now. 

On Monday, KOB 4 learned the Albuquerque Bernalillo County Water Utility Authority has crews working on emergency repairs to a collapsed sewer line.

Water Authority Spokesperson, Rachel Stone, says the collapse happened in late February. 

Crews were initially called out for a sewer backup farther up Atrisco, and then they found the collapsed sewer line.

The sewer line that broke was a 12-inch pipe, but it was not a main line. Stone says it was a pretty old pipe that broke. 

“Albuquerque has an aging infrastructure, and the pipe that collapsed was from the 1950s, so it’s about 75 years old,” said Stone. 

Stone says the pipe repairs should be done hopefully by the end of the week and then crews can start the road repairs. 

There’s a lot of road repaving that still needs to be done, but she adds there’s only been minor impacts to customers in the area, and that was only during the initial collapse of the line.

Some people we talked to who live and work in the area say they haven’t felt too much of an impact from the construction. 

They say the traffic backup can be a little annoying sometimes. Stone walked us through how the repairs are being done.

“Crews mobilized immediately to start the repairs. It’s kind of a sensitive area to work in due to high pressure gas lines underground, as well as some water lines, so it’s been a really challenging job. But right now they’re out here trying to do what’s called pipe burst, which is feeding a new pipe through the old pipe to replace it, instead of having to dig out the entire pipe,” said Stone. 

Stone adds they don’t have an official total cost for the project since it was an emergency versus scheduled maintenance

She says there’s not an official timeline for the project, since it was an emergency repair, but the Water Authority hopes it’ll be done by the end of March.