Water Main Break Outside Miller Driscoll Shows Aging Infrastructure

A break in a water main pipe under the Miller-Driscoll School parking lot, just outside the school’s North Cafeteria, threatened to close school on Tuesday. That was according to an email from school principal Cheryl Jensen-Gerner sent to parents shortly before 7 p.m. Monday night.

“We have a company working on patching the pipe this evening and they are confident it can be repaired. Should it not be resolved however, we would have to cancel school [Tuesday] as all the water has to be turned off until it is repaired. The company will work into the night and after dark if necessary.”

But just a short time later, Gary Disco, foreman of the sewer contractor crew from Butterworth and Scheck on hand to fix the broken pipe outside the school, was able to confirm that repairs were finishing quickly. Working since earlier in the day, the crew had repaired the pipe by 7:45 p.m. and were filling the hole with gravel at the same time as making promises that school would open as scheduled Tuesday.

That was confirmed by 8:30 p.m. with official word emailed from Jensen-Gerner to parents.

Disco said the pipe break was definitely weather-related.

“You had a circumferential crack–in other words, if you were to take a pencil and snap it, that’s what happened to the pipe. Although it didn’t actually sever the two pieces or separate, it just cracked. The reason it cracked, about six inches behind the crack the pipe was sitting on a stone–a big enough stone where over the winter the frost pushes it down and then it flexes back up when the frost thaws. And it cracked it.”

In other words, is what happened to the pipe the same thing that happens to the roads with potholes, as the temperature changes cause freezes and thaws?

“Exactly,” Disco said. “The same thing happens underground, especially with this size main, a 4-inch pipe. It’s very common.”

According to Disco, the crack may have actually happened overnight Sunday into Monday morning. “It wasn’t spotted until this morning. One of the moms notified the office that there was water running down the parking lot. But they were able to maintain it to a point, since it wasn’t freezing, that they could keep school going. And we came when school was done, and do what we have to do.”

Very Old Pipes Come with Old Problems

Disco pointed out that not only is the piping outside Miller Driscoll very old, he said that it wasn’t laid properly to begin with. He suggesting that replacing it would be something the town might want to consider.

“It’s from the 60s, definitely from the 60s. Anything that flexes two ways, too often, it can happen. This could have been going on for a couple years, and then finally it just gave out. If it was to break again, and it might be a good idea–for how long this stretch is, which isn’t very much–to take it into consideration to put a larger main in there, and at the correct depth. Because this main is not at the correct depth, it could be a little deeper. And be bedded better–clear the stones out before you put the pipe down.”

He also mentioned that it’s not the first time this same pipe has cracked. “It looks like somebody else did a repair close by, right where we did this one. We see their material, we know when somebody has been there.”