Westside water should be restored within hour

Crew are hoping to restore water service to residents on the west side after an early morning water main break.

Mike Judge, utilities system manager in the city public works department, said that crews had placed a new piece of pipe and were flushing it at 2:45 p.m. Thursday and were hoping to have the main back in service within hour.

The main break around 3rd Avenue Southwest near 8th Street cut water service to about three blocks, Judge said.

“It made a heck of a mess,” Judge said.

Jim Rearden, public works director, said the public works department was called around 4:30 a.m., but they weren’t sure when the break actually occurred.

The 12-inch cast iron main is 1956 vintage, Rearden said, and the break made “a muddy mess.”

The water also downed a large boulevard tree.

Crews started work early to clear the area, excavate and find the problem, Rearden said.

“We don’t once we start until the water is back on,” Judge said.

Judge said it wasn’t clear what caused the main break, but they found a 9-foot long crack in the pipe.

He said that line isn’t one the department typically has issues with.

Crews will continue working to clean up the silt and debris that washed through that neighborhood, but some of the work is weather dependent since rain will slow that work.