CRANBERRY TWP — One lane of northbound Route 19 is open this morning as a large water main break caused headaches for both township public work crew and commuters Thursday evening.

Jason Dailey, township’s public works director, the pavers are out this morning milling the damaged area of Route 19 for paving. He expected the paving to be complete this morning, and Route 19 would be fully opened by this afternoon.

A northbound section of Route 19 was closed Thursday evening just as rush hour was beginning because of a water main break causing traffic congestion.

The area of Route 19 was closed from Dutilh Road near Jerry’s Car Wash to Rochester Road for nearly three hours as commuters were coming home from work.

Cranberry water department crews were on scene into the evening trying to fix 12-inch damaged line.

The break caused water to flood the parking lot area in front of a dentist’s office. Water also flooded the closed portion of Route 19.

Northbound traffic was routed through Cranberry Square to Executive Drive and back onto northbound Route 19 at Rochester Road.

“We were fortunate that it was close to the holiday (Fourth of July), that some people had probably taken off. Although traffic was bad, it probably could have been a lot worse,” said Dailey about the timing of the break occurring just before rush hour.

One of the northbound lanes reopened about 7:30 p.m. Thursday, said Dailey.