Highway 69 Shut Down Through Pryor For Water Main Break

Construction on a damaged highway through Pryor caused some major backups and headaches on Thursday.

A damaged water main shut down Highway 69 for most of the day - all the way from Rocklahoma to Highway 20.

Repair crews spend hours picking up the pieces of a damaged highway 69.

Pryor's mayor, Larry Lees said hundreds of cars were stuck figuring out ways around it.

"We'll have anywhere from 25-28-thousand vehicles north and southbound on this highway every day," he said.

Pryor Municipal Utility Board General Manager Jarred Crisp said the culprit is a boring operation.

"We had a utility contractor out here shooting a bore for some fiber. They came across an unlocatable line, 12-inch water line, and drilled right through it," Crisp said.

The hole was punched around 11:00 a.m. and it caused water pressure to buckle the road nearly 10 feet above it.

"I've been in this position for seven years now and two times this has happened so this is very rare," Crisp said.

As rare a situation it is to be here, crews worked fast getting the water main repaired in three hours. That's something both Crisp and Mayor Lees take pride in.

"I'm proud of our municipal utility board and our street department, and our city engineer being able to respond really well and quickly," Lees said.

Because of that speed, the road was opened, though with reduced lanes, by Thursday night.

The entire repair is expected to be finished by mid to late next week.