POULSBO — When the autumn rains came, Anderson Parkway turned into a swimming pool and the Kvelstad Pavilion started to kneel.

“The rain from most of downtown was plugged right there,” said Poulsbo Public Works Director Barry Loveless last week, standing in the city’s waterfront parking lot. “It was not going anywhere.”

The single, 30-inch pipe that drained most of the standing water in downtown Poulsbo had deteriorated and collapsed.

Hampered for a week by high tides, and working in the rain, crews dug out the corroded pipe and slipped inside a smaller, sturdier, plastic pipe. Construction started Oct. 20 and finished Nov. 11. The contract for the work cost about $100,000. The ground near the Kvelstad Pavilion is still muddy, and the side of the pavilion near the sink hole that gave first indication of trouble is supported by a jack. Loveless said he hopes to have the park restored by mid-December.

The trouble started when a sink hole formed in the park in September, threatening the pavilion. Then came heavy rains in October.

“That’s when it totally quit draining,” Loveless said. He estimated the deteriorated pipe was about 40 years old.