Update: See below for more details.
If you noticed your water pressure drop around 1 p.m. on Monday, you were not alone.
A large water main broke around 10th and Michigan Avenue, the Water Utility reported. And while this wasn’t nearly as bad as what happened in February — when a large water main break left the city without drinking water for a day — this one apparently impacted a number of businesses and residents.
As of late Wednesday afternoon, the utility was still working to repair the main, and there was still low pressure for a few customers, the city reported.
Were you affected by the main break? Let me know how. Post your comments below.
I’ll keep you posted when I learn more about this.
UPDATE
Here is information I got from Doug Fischer, our water utility superintendent, on Tuesday.
A 12’ main on 10th and Michigan broke around 12:30 pm causing low pressure throughout the city. Our crew responded immediately to isolate the break. They were able to get the water shut off at approximately an hour later. The only customer that was without water during the repair was Nona’s.
After digging we found that the pipe had pretty much blew apart. A big section of the pipe had broken off causing extensive road damage. The crew also had to repair an old valve that was hit while digging that we believe was for an abandoned fire hydrant. The repairs were completed and water back on around 11:30 pm. We had to wait to back fill until today because the Wastewater Department wanted to send a camera into the sewer that is below the water main to make sure it wasn’t damaged. We also could not get slurry for back fill until after 11:00 am today.
The road will be opened up for traffic after The Street Department has the holes patched with asphalt.
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