Water Main Breaks Affects Nearly 2,000

Nearly 2,000 Salem water customers were affected by an early-morning water main break on Thursday along Highland Avenue.

The break happened before 5 a.m. near the intersection of Highland Avenue and Swampscott Road. The Water Department worked to locate the exact location of the break and the repair work began by 10 a.m.

Water service to everyone was restored before 10 p.m. on Thursday. The repairs were done before 9 p.m., when the system began to be pressurized again, according to Mayor Kimberley Driscoll.

Some water customers lost water service for just a short time, some saw low water pressure and other went without water all day.

Dominick Pangallo, Driscoll’s chief of staff, said in a tweet that about a foot of a 16-inch water main had to be replaced.

In all, about 1,900 water customers were impacted, he said, and 1,500 of them had water service back on Thursday morning. The rest went all of Thursday without service.

Before noon, water customers north of Swampscott Road had water pressure restored but some were seeing discolored water, Pangallo said. Low pressure was also experienced along Highland Avenue and on Witchcraft Heights, according to the Water Department.

South of Swampscott Road, water customers saw a drop in pressure during the repair work.

The repair work also affected traffic along Highland Avenue, where some lanes of the road were closed for the work.