How Western Springs Repairs a Broken Water Main

In addition to plenty of other water issues related to the reverse-osmosis water plant construction, the Village of Western Springs has seen a skyrocketing number of water main breaks over the spring and summer of 2012.

Village Board members and staff have suggested that this may be in part due to the dry weather that the area has experienced through most of the year so far, although this is difficult to confirm. The numbers have been as high as five or six breaks in a single weekend.

Residents may have seen Public Works trucks at the site of water main breaks, and may wonder how such breaks are fixed, and why it can take extra time. We spoke with Village Director of Municipal Services Matt Supert, and consulted the Village’s online document on “Understanding Water Main Breaks,” to put together this guide:

Detecting the break and clearing to dig

The number one source of water-main break reports? You.

According to the Village, the vast majority of breaks are discovered by residents who notice the water bubbling in their street or parkway. Following resident calls to the police, public works or fire departments, a public works crew is dispatched to the site. (Another way a break is discovered is if a water plant operator notices an unaccounted-for drop in water levels.)

Public Works’ first step upon arriving is to test the bubbling water for traces of residual chlorine, which indicate that the water is from the Village’s system. As soon as a break is confirmed, a message is posted on the Village website and Facebook page. In the rare instance that a boil-water order needs to be issued, the Village’s CodeRED alert will be utilized.

Next—and this is what takes some time—they have to file a Joint Utility Locating Information for Excavators (J.U.L.I.E.) request. J.U.L.I.E. tells the repair crew where all the other nearby utility lines are—phone, electricity, etc.—to ensure that the repairmen don’t create more damage than they repair by, say, slicing through a gas line and causing an explosion.

Unfortunately, J.U.L.I.E. requests can take several hours, and no digging or water shutdown can start until one is completed. This is one of the main reasons why water main breaks require extended time to repair.

Tearin’ it up to find the break

Once Public Works has received their J.U.L.I.E. clearance, they will start to cut and dig around the area of the break. Using a saw, they score the street or parkway area around the bubbling water, and then dig it out with a backhoe. Soil and debris gets loaded into a dump truck and hauled off.

About 80 percent of the time, Public Works finds the break in the pipe right where the water was bubbling up. Sometimes, though, the water has been travelling to the surface through weaker soil, and so the break might be as much as 40 feet away—which requires some additional excavation.

There are three common types of breaks: a leak at one of the seams between two pieces of the pipe, a longitudinal crack running along the pipe or a “blowout” where a circular portion of the pipe has actually ruptured.

Water is typically left on during the dig to help repairmen locate the break. If the crack is small enough, Public Works may be able to simply place a seal over the leak without ever shutting off the water. More often, however, a shutdown is required—and in extreme cases, that shutdown may have to be widespread. The Department is committed to a door-to-door process to notify residents of any water shut-offs.

Fixing and filling

As with most aspects of the break-fixing process, the repair itself has an easy way for most cases and a tougher way for the worse ones.

Smaller leaks can be clamped with a seal that fits around the pipe. For a more intense break, Public Works will saw-cut out the pipe and fit the gap with a replacement, using rubber “boots” to secure it in place.

With the break officially repaired, it’s time to fill in the hole. Once all the weak, water-saturated soil is removed, Public Works starts pouring white stone into the hole—three-quarters of the way to the top for a parkway fill, all the way for a fill in the street.

Finally, the hole is patched. Street fills are given a quick temporary patch to clear the street, with Public Works returning a few weeks later to apply a permanent patch. Parkway dig holes are topped with about a foot’s worth of soil and then reseeded to grow parkway grass anew.

That dirty water

Western Springs’ water system is unique. Sure, you know about the deep aquifers rather than pumping in lake water, but the Village also pressurizes all its pipes through the gravity of the two water towers (in Spring Rock Park and Garden Market.) This results in most of the Village’s water being in a directionless flow.

And this means that when a water main breaks, the generally accepted equilibrium is thrown into some degree of chaos, with water suddenly flowing in directions it hasn’t before.

This stirs up sediment in the pipes, and results in the cloudy water sometimes seen following a water main break. (The sediment is ordinary and normal buildup from decades of water—which has natural minerals in it—flowing through the pipes.)

Often, the Village will declare that the cloudy water is perfectly safe to drink. However, residents can also run their cold-water tap in the lowest possible location of their house until the discoloration goes away. Check the Village website for updates after a main break.