Weeks After Collapse, 26th Street Residents To Return Home Thursday
BALTIMORE (WJZ) -- Residents of the 26th Street collapse finally get the answer they've been waiting for. Sunday, the mayor announced when they can return home.
Monique Griego has details.
Residents learned Sunday they'll be able to start moving back in just a few days. That's a full week ahead of schedule.
One month after 26th Street in Charles Village collapsed into a massive pile of rubble, displaced residents finally got the news they've been waiting for.
Sunday afternoon, the mayor announced residents will be allowed to return home starting Thursday.
"I've been pushing my team extremely hard. I made it very clear that vacations don't exist, off-days don't exist. And because of that, we are ahead of schedule," Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake said.
City leaders say over the next few days BGE will be contacting homeowners to get their services turned back on.
"They've been working over the weekend, round the clock to get the final gas mains installed. All the water and sewer mains are installed," said William M. Johnson, Department of Transportation director.
As neighbors head home, they'll be doing it in a sea of ongoing construction. The city estimates it will take five to six months to complete all the repairs. During that time, no parking on the street is allowed.
"They key is that we're reaching the end of what I consider kind of the emergency phase. Now we're moving toward longer term construction," Johnson said.
Last week, the Department of Transportation gave a staggering estimate for the cost of those repairs--$18.6 million. What isn't known is exactly how much of that CSX will have to pay for. The street crumbled onto its tracks.
"Understandably, a long process. We're talking about property lines that were drawn over 100 years ago," the mayor said.
While there are still a lot of cost sharing issues, the city says as far as the residents are concerned, their claims have already been paid.
Department of Transportation officials still have not said what exactly caused the road collapse, but believe heavy rain contributed to it.
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