The city's road work on Elm Street, at the unused Norfolk Southern railroad crossing, should be completed this week.

Transportation Manager Bill Skinner said the bottom of a storm pipe running under the railroad had rusted out, causing recent rains to pull dirt from the area forming a sink hole beside the new paving.

Traffic was slightly diverted away from the weak edge of the road until repairs were made.

Skinner said the city had already planned to upgrade the pipe in the future, so it went ahead and made the repairs, hiring a contractor to install a 36-inch concrete storm water pipe at a cost of $45,000.

The projects will be fully completed at a later time, but the new pipe has been tied in to the system, Skinner said. Because the project was deemed an emergency, it was funded out of the street department instead of the stormwater budget, said city Engineer Tres Thomas.

The project took a little longer to complete than normal because the city had to get permission from Norfolk Southern to make the repairs and had to order the pipe.