Crews continued to work Friday morning to repair a broken water main that closed lanes of U.S. 78 at Langley Road near Loganville.
For Friday morning’s commute, two westbound lanes and one eastbound lane of the highway were open. That’s the opposite of Thursday afternoon’s setup.
U.S. 78, a major thoroughfare from Gwinnett County into Atlanta and DeKalb County, usually has two lanes in each direction, plus a middle turning lane, in that area. Lynn Smarr, acting director of the Gwinnett water department, had no estimate Thursday on when the road will reopen entirely.
Thursday’s flooding wasn’t just a problem for drivers on U.S. 78. On Thursday morning, about 20 homes were evacuated in the Gwinnett Estates mobile home park, but those residents were allowed to return home around 7 a.m.
Gwinnett fire Capt. Tommy Rutledge said firefighters went street to street assisting residents of the mobile home park with evacuations, and buses from the Gwinnett Sheriff’s Department were at the scene to shelter residents.
Smarr said the pipe that broke early Thursday morning — a 48-inch main — was installed in the late 1970s. She said the break also affected two nearby subdivisions Thursday.
Water pressure at Eastside Medical Center in Snellville also was temporarily affected, Rutledge said.
Rutledge said that Department of Water Resources crews were able to close valves and stop the flow of water around 6:15 a.m. Thursday.
– Staff photographer John Spink and staff writer Alexis Stevens contributed to this article.
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