The 1100 block of 5th Avenue NE saw 7 water main breaks in a matter of hours thanks to a freak incident October 24th.

 

What started as a simply problem quickly "exploded" into a major issue for the city's Engineering Department last month.

On October 24th, a water main break was reported to City Hall. As crews were fixing it, the city's high service reservoir over compensated for the drop in water pressure, essential tripling the output. Well that caused 14 other water main breaks in the city with 7 being located on 5th Avenue NE.

City Engineer Ryan Johnson says the entire water main on that block had to be replaced. "Tat situation is very uncommon. Normally we could tie back into some place on a metal pipe but in this case we couldn't and it was just easier to replace that block that it was to have it fail every time we put a clamp on it."

The bulk of the work is now done at a cost of $90,000 with road repairs now underway. But due to the end of construction season, the asphalt top might have to wait until the spring.