City officials deal with burst water pipe on north side

A burst water pipe on the north side of Kimball left residents without water through Wednesday night, March 5, as Water Department employees worked to get the gushing water under control.

According to David Ford, City of Kimball Water Superintendent, the problems started the afternoon of Tuesday, March 3, when employees went to inspect what appeared to be a service line leak. However, the situation quickly escalated early Wednesday morning.

"During the night, it really broke loose so then we can tell by looking at our chart down at the shop that at about 4:30 a.m. it just started straight lining and was running constantly so I think it must have totally come loose 4:30 Wednesday morning," Ford said.

Though Ford and his men worked hard to try to shut off the water running through the pipe, using one of the various valves in the area, the valve didn't hold, leading the city to have to contract with a company out of Lincoln to come in and stop the water flow through that section of the system.

"They used what they call an inserter valve up here on this end. We couldn't get a valve to hold down there so they inserted a valve under pressure, and that's how we finally got it shut off," Ford said. "It was pretty cool watching them do it. Their machine would sit there and it would turn as it cut and it just must cut like a slit in the pipe and then they insert a valve and it just goes down in that pipe and shuts the water off so it was awful cool."

Ford states that the reason behind the pipe burst is most likely due to fluctuations in the weather of the area.

"Probably what happened with the frost and everything going down in the ground and going down in the ground between the heating and cooling cycles, it probably just moved that pipe enough to where it pulled the stop off. Once that pulled off, the water gushing out cut a hole," Ford said.

The age of the pipe also may have played a factor in the break, according to Ford.

"It's very old. I would say this may be even as close as to 100 years old, and we're struggling getting fittings to fit it and to fit what we have nowadays," Ford said.

After working with the crew out of Lincoln for the better part of Wednesday night, having to shut off the water in that section of town for the entirety of the process, and returning Thursday morning to repair the broken section of the pipe, water department employees were finally able to fix the pipe and restore water to the residents in the area of the pipe which is located on Walnut Street between Main Street and State Street on the north side.

According to City Administrator Daniel Ortiz, breaks of this kind are not uncommon during the winter months as the area is subjected to bouts of freezing temperatures that are followed by warmer temperatures.

"We see it quite often, whether it's on the city's main line or a lot of residents'. That's why we kind of remind residents during these hard freezes and low temperatures to leave their water running, at least one faucet running, to keep the flow of water going through there so they don't experience it at least on their section of the line. When that happens, that's obviously a big expense for them as well as an inconvenience for them to call a plumber and get that repaired," Ortiz said.

However, though it is mostly a mere inconvenience when it happens on the residents' part of the line, it can be quite serious when a burst occurs on the city's main line.

"When it happens on our line, it's a little more serious, because we're not dealing with a half inch pipe. We're dealing with a four inch main or an eight inch main in some cases. So it becomes rather problematic," Ortiz said.

In the case of a pipe burst, the city normally will access one of the several valves throughout Kimball in order to cut off the water flow and assess the situation and how to proceed with a fix.

"Throughout the entire system, we have valves. If you were to walk down the downtown area, you'll see little valves on the sidewalks. They may look different depending on which area of town you're in. But the procedure is, we go to the valves and shut them off so we can isolate the section that's damaged. We tear up the pavement so we can reach the pipe and be able to repair it. We essentially put a new segment of pipe into there to repair it," Ortiz said.

However, numerous times, due to the age of the valve, the city will have to contract with companies outside of the region to come in and help repair the pipe, much like they were forced to do with the burst on Walnut this past week.

"We experienced this exact same issue on 9th street between Burg and Howard, and we had to follow that same process as well. Unfortunately, the outfit we have to contract with is out of Lincoln so it takes some time for them to come out here and so our crews are going to be working in the evening until they get that shut off and isolated," Ortiz said.

Ortiz also stated that the Walnut incident was most likely hastened by the fact that that portion of Walnut Street is simply a dirt road instead of concrete.

"A lot of it is also determined by the depth of the water line, how deep it is and especially the pavement. In this particular case, what probably added to it is, we're talking about a water main that might not be as deep in other areas. It's just a dirt road in that section of the city so the coldness and the freezing temperatures can reach the pipe much more easily in some cases," Ortiz said.

Ortiz also echoed Ford's statements on the age of the pipes playing a factor in such incidents. Though many city officials are aware that many of the pipes in the water system are very old, Ortiz states that inspection and replacement of the sections before a potential burst is not plausible given the scope that such a project would entail, leaving officials to be unaware of the condition of the pipe and which pipes need to be replaced until a burst occurs.

"Obviously, you're going to have systems and pipes that are going to be older. They're underground so you can't really inspect the system to see what condition or deterioration it's gone under or what pressures have occurred whether it's heavy vehicles driving over a road that all the time has not been suited for that vehicle weight or things of that nature. A lot of that goes into effect with how the pipe maintains itself," Ortiz said. "Aside going through the immense cost of digging up all our old infrastructure and replacing it, there's not really a realistic solution that we can consider in the short term."