WESTLOCK – Huge temperature swings combined with aging pipes have led to a pair of recent downtown-area waterline breaks.
As the temperature dropped well below -30 C, the first came Feb. 7 when operations staff were dispatched to 10720 100th Avenue (Main Street) to repair a waterline break — a break that ultimately damaged the Faye Lewko clock, which remains offline.
The second, as temperatures climbed and then surpassed the freezing mark, was this past Tuesday, Feb. 23, when a waterline broke in the area of 107th Street between 102nd and 103rd Avenues. Crews were ultimately forced to shut off water service for residents on the adjoining blocks for a number of hours before repairing it later that evening.
And although not technically a waterline break, operations staff dealt with a curb stop valve failure on Main Street between 105th and 106th Streets Feb. 4 — CAO Simone Wiley said that issue was likely due to the thousands of gallons of water that flowed onto the street as part of the efforts to fight the fire that consumed the Commerce Building Jan. 31.
Wiley and mayor Ralph Leriger said these waterline breaks are par for the course in the winter, especially with the wild temperature swings the region has experienced the last month. At a recent town council meeting, the issue of the breaks came up briefly and it’s one Wiley said the municipality will continue to monitor.
“The discussion I recall was on investigating further some of the older lines in the downtown area and that falls right into our asset management plan. So, we’ll use the information knowing we’ve had these breaks … and we’ll use that information to continue informing our plan and maybe to a more detailed investigation on the condition of some of those lines where we see more breaks happen,” said Wiley.
“Our expectation is never that we won’t have waterline breaks … it happens when it’s frightfully cold, but more often when it warms up after it’s been frightfully cold. Our goal is never to eliminate them completely, because it’s not realistic so we budget for ‘X’ amount of them,” said Leriger. “The oldest piece (of line) is that one by the Lewko clock and going into the old SAAN store and that’s going to have to get done — we chased that leak last year as well. We’ll ask administration to ask engineering to look at that piece and make some recommendations.”
