Key UNMC intersection reopens after water main break fixed

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Traffic is flowing again through the University of Nebraska Medical Center following repairs to a broken water main at 42nd and Harney Streets three weeks ago.

The rupture to the 16-inch pipe had forced the closure of 42nd Street between Farnam Street and Dewey Avenue ever since it occurred on the evening of Aug. 7.

UNMC closed the Clarkson Doctors Building South, a medical office building one block west of the break, for nearly a week following the break. The closure also shut off the main north-south route through the campus, complicating access to Clarkson Tower and the clinics on Leavenworth Street from Dodge Street.

Security guards block traffic on 44th and Farnam Streets in Omaha on Aug. 7 after a water main broke at 42nd and Harney Streets. The break prompted the closure of a two-block stretch of 42nd Street through the University of Nebraska Medical Center campus. The street was reopened Monday, though other road construction continues around the expanding UNMC campus.

The rupture was caused by corrosion and “ground-movement stress,” from nearby infrastructure, said Jessica Heidebrecht, a Metropolitan Utilities District spokeswoman, in a statement Tuesday.

She said that section of pipe was replaced, as well as an adjacent section in which workers discovered another small leak.

Next spring, Heidebrecht said in the statement, MUD, the city and UNMC will coordinate to “fully rehabilitate” the water main from Farnam to Leavenworth. That move, she said, “will strengthen the main, allowing for greater reliability through this busy corridor.”

City traffic engineers had initially forecast that road and utility repairs at the intersection would take a full month, until Sept. 8. The project wrapped up sooner.

“We got in there and worked as fast and as hard as we could and got the job done,” said Scott Musgrove of Omaha Public Works’ traffic engineering section.

Taylor Wilson, a spokesman for Nebraska Medicine, expressed gratitude to the city for getting the intersection opened earlier than planned.

Repairs have been completed on a broken water main at 42nd and Harney Streets, which is now open to traffic.

“Having a main artery through campus again available for patients and staff is a big help for everyone who regularly travels the streets surrounding the med center,” he said in a statement.

It was the second water-main break at the same intersection in 10 months. A broken pipe Oct. 22, 2022, shut down 42nd and Harney for about two weeks. And earlier this summer, 42nd Street was closed south of Leavenworth because of a separate water-main break.

Plenty of road construction still continues in and around the UNMC campus.

Southbound traffic has been shifted to the center lane at 42nd and Dewey due to sidewalk replacement, until Sept. 5.

The southbound lanes are closed and traffic is restricted to one lane in each direction on Saddle Creek Road between Emile and Leavenworth Streets due to utility work, until Sept. 6.

Leavenworth Street is restricted to one lane westbound between Saddle Creek Road and South 49th Street due to utility work, until Sept. 24.

South 48th Street is closed between Leavenworth and Howard Streets due to utility work, until Sept. 5.

Farnam Street is closed between Saddle Creek and South 48th for street improvements related to construction of UNMC’s Saddle Creek campus, until the end of the year.

Harney Street is restricted to one lane eastbound between South 38th Avenue and South 38th Street because of building construction, until Sept. 13.

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The World-Herald's coverage of tornadoes through the years