By Morgan Pilz, Staff Writer
Water main problem proves to be one major leak govt. can fix with a little digging
(Feb. 6, 2020) Employees of the Berlin Water Resources Department spent approximately 18 hours repairing a leaking water valve on the intersection of Broad and West streets last weekend.
Photo courtesy Thom Gulyas
Crews work well into the early hours of Sunday morning, Feb. 2, to replace an aging water valve that failed on the intersection of Broad and West
streets in Berlin.
The leak was investigated at 8:30 a.m. on Saturday, Feb. 1, and a majority of the work needed to patch the leak was completed around 4:30 a.m. on Sunday, Feb. 2.
“It was aging infrastructure … the valve that failed was installed in the late ’50s early ’60s,” Berlin Town Administrator Jeff Fleetwood said.
The failed valve was one of four located in the four-way intersection on Broad and West Streets. One valve was replaced years ago, Fleetwood said, and another two (including the one that failed) were replaced Saturday evening.
The fourth valve was replaced Monday evening to avoid failure in the future.
“It’s unfortunate, but its aging infrastructure and what the crew did Saturday and what they [did on Monday] … it’s a bit proactive since it’s been opened to go ahead and fix and replace the aging infrastructure to avoid another issue,” Fleetwood said.
Water for that section of the town was shut off temporarily in order to complete the task.
“The entire time [the crew was] working, people were not without water,” Fleetwood said. “They worked around the leak for quite some time and when they got to the point where they needed to shut water down, they did.”
The water department continued to make repairs to the area on Tuesday between 4:30 a.m. and 2 p.m., with detours marked for passengers traveling between Board and West Streets. Water was shut off in the immediate area of the construction between 5:30-8 a.m.
The roads were expected to be closed once again for repaving on Wednesday between 8 a.m. and 1 p.m., weather permitting.