The drop in temperature is the likely cause for water leaks in Bradford City over the weekend, according to Steve Disney, executive director of the water authority.
Disney said the authority was called early Saturday morning and again on Sunday for leaks on North Center Street. Also, crews were dispatched Sunday evening for a possible water leak in the 1200 block of East Main Street.
While some North Center Street-area residents lost service while repairs were being made, the breaks did not cause water safety concerns, Disney indicated, explaining, “due to the efforts by authority crews obtaining a good positive shutdown of the affected water main, no boil water advisories have been issued.”
Disney said late Sunday afternoon that workers expected to finish repairs to the second North Center Street leak within a couple of hours.
The first water leak was reported early Saturday morning, bringing crews out into the cold to start repairs. Disney “believes the break was caused in large part due to the extreme temperature drops during the past week.”
Disney said around 2:30 a.m. Saturday, Bradford City Police were notified about a potential leak on North Center Street. Police found a large break between the Choice store and Family Video and contacted the water authority through its on-call system. “Water authority crews were on-scene by 4 a.m. and immediately started shutdown procedures,” he said.
Because of the challenging weather conditions, it took the crew more than eight hours to get a positive shutdown, then three hours to repair the leak. It was around 3:30 p.m. Saturday when service was restored to North Center Street area residents who lost it.
It was those residents who lost service again Sunday, when another leak, a crack about eight feet from Saturday’s leak, appeared, said Disney. There was “a good shutdown,” and he anticipated it would be repaired by Sunday evening without a need for a boil water advisory.
Disney talked in-depth about the challenges crews faced while making repairs in the wintry conditions.
“Water authority crews were hindered and battled very poor weather conditions, and a large volume of gate valves needing to be closed due to multiple cross connections and interconnections that feed the city water grid in that area,” Disney said.
“About four inches of new snow, coupled with a lot of heavily packed frozen snow and ice on the roadways from the past week, caused finding gate boxes a real problem,” he continued. “Once gate boxes were located, most of their caps were frozen shut, prompting torches to be utilized to gain access down the gate box. Many gate boxes were also filled with frozen sediment and water and also had to be heated, cleared and vacuumed to gain access to the valves.”
The nature of the water line network in that area brought additional complexity to the work, Disney indicated.
“North Center Street is a complex water grid, it has both an 8-inch and 24-inch water main running parallel in that area,” he said. “Because of the city water grid connecting back and forth between blocks, and several inter-connections between the 8-inch and 24-inch main lines, several valves had to be closed to obtain a positive shut down of the water main prior to repairs being completed.”
Police scanner reports on Sunday afternoon indicated city police investigated a report of a male who was being unruly toward workers on North Center Street, but no further information was available on Sunday night.
