A missing sewer pipe at an Onset residence led to a giant hole in the ground, a three-day repair project, and now, a $60,000 bill for the town.

The sewer pipe is missing is a lateral pipe, which connects the residence to the sewer system under the street. When the area was originally sewered in the 1970s, the pipe was mistakenly not installed.

The Selectmen on Tuesday voted to transfer $60,000 from the sewer reserve funds to pay outside contractors who worked on the project, which took place in September.

Tommy Barboza Construction was hired to take on the job.

“There were groundwater issues, a broken main – that’s why it’s so expensive," said Water Pollution Control Facility Director Guy Campinha.

The owner of the property, which is located on East Central Avenue, has paid their betterment fee -- the cost residents are required to pay when the town installs sewer in a neighborhood. However, the property had not previously been tied in to town sewer.

“We had to go to the street to get a lateral” in order to do the tie-in, said Campinha, explaining why a large hole had to be dug in the road. Had a lateral pipe been there, it wouldn’t have been necessary to dig in the road.

Further complicating the construction was the property’s close proximity to the beach. When the tide rose, so did the water table. This, coupled with rain, led to the project taking longer than expected because work had to stop when the water rose too high.