The water line on Heber Ave. between Park Ave. and Main St., broke right in front of the Kimball Garage just before noon on Thursday. The city lost 2,000 gallons of water per minute and officials are enacting an emergency contract to get it fixed, once and for all. Melissa Allison has more:
The line was put into place on Heber Ave. in 1975. It is made of cast iron. It is no secret that the soil in and around Park City has a corrosive nature which is why Public Utilities Director Clint McAffee said he’s not going to put off replacing it with PVC any longer.
"This line has broken over and over again,” McAffee said. “In the recent past I think I’ve seen it break four times since I’ve been here. And they’re never small or easy repairs to make. I think the last one was in the Park Ave. intersection. We had the entire intersection closed down for a couple of days.”
Though he says the city lost about 200,000 gallons of water in just 90 minutes – it could have been worse.
“The stormwater system contained it just fine,” McAffee said. “But if this happens in the wintertime, during a snowstorm, you know you get snowbanks plugging the inlets, it could turn out a lot worse. And I think, you know, its just a matter of time before it fails again. Every time we dig up this pipe its rotting. Its just at the endo fits useful life.”
He says rather than leave a patch down the middle of the road, they’re going to replace the pavement, curb to curb.
He estimates it will cost the city about $250,000.
Lastly, because of the nature of the damage, McAffee says they have no other choice than to leave a leaky valve in place.
“Right outside the new Kimball Art Center, looking north on Main St., there’s a valve here that is leaking, and it will leak the entire project so, two or three weeks, or hopefully not too much longer. And I’m sure we’ll get a lot of calls and, you know, we’ll probably put a sign on that light pole that says this is necessary due to repairs,” McAffee said. “We know its water being wasted but, it’s the best alternative for this project.”
Crews were in the immediate area when the pipe burst Thursday and turned the water off as fast as possible.
No known damage has occurred as a result of the break.
McAffee said they’re getting three bids from contractors and hope to begin the repairs as early as Monday or Tuesday.
I’m Melissa Allison, KPCW News.