SALISBURY — Because of a water main break near the intersection of South Fulton and Main streets on Jan. 6, a portion of South Fulton Street between Maupin Avenue and Main Street has been closed for just over three weeks.

But Salisbury-Rowan Utilities Director Jim Behmer and Public Services Assistant Director Craig Powers said Monday that if all goes according to plan, the street should be open in the next week.

Powers said there have been a number of reasons that the reconstruction of the road has taken several weeks.

“We started exploring underneath the pavement to see what the extent of the damages were,” he said. “That’s when we excavated out as much as we did. That’s where we figured out, ‘OK, this ground’s stable, this pavement’s good, we don’t need to tear it out.’”

Behmer said the water main break was fixed on the same day that it burst.

Powers said the subgrade — the base under the asphalt of the road — is concrete, which is a material the city no longer uses as a subgrade.

“That’s an older practice. We are putting in stone. So we excavated out deeper to put in … gravel. So that changed a little bit of the scope,” Powers said.

Powers said the snowstorm last week also slowed the process down.

“All of the staff had to get pulled off of repairing the road to address snow removal,” Powers said. “(And) we had to wait for the ground to thaw out.”

Powers said that as soon as crews can get it “dried up enough and solid,” they will pave the road with asphalt.

“But you can’t pave it until the ground is solid,” Powers said.

Contact reporter Jessica Coates at 704-797-4222.