PALMER — Repair crews expect to be working on Alaska Street for about two weeks after a water main cracked Tuesday night, sending a four-foot geyser up through the pavement.

    Carter Cole, Palmer’s director of public works, said he first got word about the geyser at about 8:30 p.m., during a city council meeting.

    “Our police dispatcher called me and let me know there was water coming up through the street and then I notified our crews and we all assembled here and shut it down, watched it for a bit to make sure it was actually shut down,” Cole said.     A party near the Palmer Train Depot added a touch more excitement to the evening. Cole said someone knocked a window out of the depot building. His crews boarded the window up as well that night.

    As for the water main, Cole described the damage as a four-foot crack running laterally down the 10-inch steel pipe. That kind of damage requires more work than just a patch job. He said his department is going to have to replace it.

    He said state funds to upgrade the water system in Palmer have already been secured. This year’s installment hasn’t been delivered yet but crews can get started working knowing that money is on its way. This particular piece of pipe was slated to be replaced in three years; that work will just have to get done early.

    “It’s a pretty major thing that’s got to get done,” Cole said. “We would lose this whole section of street if we don’t go down and fix it.”

    Traffic will be routed around the work area where crews with backhoes had already begun their work this afternoon. Cole said he plans to get signs in place directing traffic as soon as he can.

    He said from what he’s seen, he wouldn’t feel comfortable letting anyone drive on the road until it’s fixed. Water lifted up the portion where the geyser punched through, buckling and cracking the asphalt. Also — the water created quite a large sinkhole under the pavement.

    “You could’ve lost a couple of cars in the hole that was underneath it,” Cole said.

A couple of businesses lost water service temporarily, he said, but they have water now. Also, the storm drains siphoned off the water, so there was no flooding.