What’s it like to respond to a watermain break?
Think of it as a mystery! When our Water team arrives they know there is a problem – but they have to figure out how to solve it. Typically there are signs at ground-level alerting us to a problem but the answer is underground somewhere.
Nine times out of 10 we have to dig to find the problem area. On this day our team spent several hours carefully digging to locate the issue. Many times there are other utilities near our water lines – so we have to make sure we don’t hit those while we dig (we do call MISS DIG 811 first to aid in this). We start with a backhoe then move into shoveling by hand. This is when the problem is revealed and we are able to determine what we need to do to fix it. Along the way we may have to turn off or reduce water service in the area and close a street. Each watermain break is different!
Of course, when we’re done, we have to fill in the hole we dug and make the street accessible for traffic. At a later date a more permanent repair is completed. Stop back tomorrow – and we’ll show you how we restore a yard area impacted by a watermain break.
Original source can be found here.
Alerts Sign-up