Traffic and businesses affected as JEA continues repair work on water main break in Mandarin

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — It’s the 10th day that JEA crews are working to fix a water main break in Mandarin. Repair work has been ongoing on San Jose Boulevard between Old River Road and Claire Lane.

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The roads in both directions have been limited to one lane each.

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“I would say it’s been a nightmare,” driver Katherine Schonely said.

Schonely is only on her second day of a new job and she’s been late both days because of the traffic.

“I left on time yesterday and I was still 15 minutes late just because I was not expecting the traffic to be that bad when I came down,” she said.

It’s been 10 days since crews shut down the four inside lanes on both sides, just south of I-295.

ORIGINAL STORY: Water main break repair expected to last a week, forces lane closures on San Jose Boulevard

Mandola’s Italian Kitchen is right in front of the construction site and managing partner Keith Dyson said it’s dramatically hurt business.

“I would say maybe down 25 percent over last month,” Dyson said.

He said it’s the worst on the weekends.

“This time of year is always hard for restaurants, so we fight for every dollar we can get,” Dyson said. “This kind of puts a little hindrance on all that.”

Crews had to dig 25 feet down to find the leak and start repairs to the pipe.

“We’ve been working on and off for 24 hours straight, alternating crews to be able to provide a high level of service, but also ensure that we’re continuing to work to provide this road access for the community,” JEA Waste Water Manager Kyle Schoettler said.

RELATED: JEA crews need crane to fix Mandarin water main break, lanes closed through next weekend

And that work has taken a long time. With all the rain saturating the ground, they need special equipment to keep crews safe.

“Excavations at these types of depths, conditions do change, which requires us to change our plan of attack to ensure that regardless of where our crews are at what time of day it is, that they’re safe,” Schoettler said.

JEA is still working to identify why the water main broke. But this is the second time the pipe has leaked since it was installed in the early 2000s.

As for the traffic -- JEA expects crews to be here into next weekend.

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