While water was restored to residents in North Lubbock in the early hours of Monday morning, the hassle of a major water line rupture isn’t over for the city or residents in the area. The boil water notice is still in effect for people living in the area and will remain in effect until water samples from the water line can be tested.
“Saturday afternoon at around 1 p.m. we had a contractor doing some work for the City of Lubbock on a sewer project, boring across University just north of Cesar Chavez Drive and hit one of our water mains,” explained Wood Franklin, Director of Public Works for the City of Lubbock.
Franklin explained that he and many other city employees headed in to work on the pipeline over the weekend; the city dispatched on-call crews to get to the root of the problem. Their first priority was shutting off the water flow so that the water line could actually be repaired.
“I think our crews did a great job, once we heard about the leak, we’ve had our crews on site literally for 24/7 the last three days, since this happened on Saturday, they’re not going to stop until it’s repaired,” Franklin explained.
Franklin said that the contractor’s boring machine interfered with an existing city water line.
He said of the contractor’s equipment: “It actually got entangled into some of the rebar in the pipe so we were unable to pull the boring machine out, so their equipment created a hole and was stuck in our pipe, so it was stuck that way for a long time.”
Franklin explained that the next step for the city is to repair the pipeline altogether, they will assess possible solutions in the coming days. He acknowledged that this water line rupture is significant and that the city will spend time this week debriefing on what went wrong.
“This was a major problem, we deal with water breaks water main hits frequently, it just happens especially when we have large growth which Lubbock is experiencing,” Franklin said.
For residents and businesses in the area, the stretch of time without water was a big inconvenience. People who lived in the impacted area told EverythingLubbock.com they traveled to friends’ homes in order to shower.
Reynaldo Pina who has a granite business, Arrowhead Natural Stone, just blocks north of the ruptured line. Pina said his business was affected by the line rupture.
“We came into work on Saturday and started doing our job without using water, when we got to using our water, [there was] no water, so I had to make some calls and find out what was going on,” he said.
Instead of getting ahead on projects for the week, Pina was unable to complete his projects on Saturday and Sunday without the water necessary to run the granite production.
As someone who’s worked construction before, Pina said he understands why the pipe repairs took a few days to happen. But he admits going without water has him playing catch up on his work.
“I’m going to have to pull an all-nighter today, and hopefully I will be able to do maybe 80 percent today and do the rest tomorrow and install the rest on Thursday,” he explained.
Franklin agreed that the circumstances around the line rupture are both unusual and inconvenient.
“We had to enter a boil water notice in this situation, we haven’t had to do that for years in Lubbock, Texas, so obviously this is a big deal and we do understand the impact to the citizens,” Franklin said.
Below is a press release issued by the City of Lubbock:
Water service has been restored to customers affected by the ruptured water line on Saturday, August 20th. A boil water notice will remain in effect until required testing has been completed. The public will be notified once samples are cleared. Only those in the affected areas will need to boil their water.
The areas affected are:
– Hillcrest Country Club subdivision between Kent and Purdue Streets and University and Boston Avenues
– The businesses along the North University Avenue corridor north of Loop 289 including X-FAB, AT&T and the State Supported Living Center
– The area north of Erskine Street and south of Loop 289 between North Avenue X and Cesar Chaves Drive
City of Lubbock Public Works Maintenance Crews worked through the night Sunday to install a valve on the ruptured water line at North University Avenue near Cesar Chaves Drive. This allowed water service to the affected areas to be restored.
Additional work on the ruptured line must still be completed. Due to that work, southbound traffic on North University Avenue is reduced to one lane at Cesar Chaves Drive. Drivers are encouraged to find alternate routes and use caution if driving in the area.
Public Works continues to work diligently to complete the needed repairs. The City of Lubbock regrets the inconvenience this service interruption has caused.
(Press release from the City of Lubbock)