Rock causes water main break on Stillwater Avenue
OLD TOWN, Maine — A rock was thought to be the cause of a water main break July 7 on a section of pipe installed in 1960 on Stillwater Avenue.
Old Town Water District workers replaced an 8.5-foot section of 60-year-old water main on busy Stillwater Avenue. (Courtesy of Old Town Water District)
The failure of the 16-inch transmission main kept Old Town Water District employees extremely busy for 17 hours while they made repairs. The waterline break occurred across from the UHAUL business on 629 Stillwater Ave.
District Superintendent Steve Lane said Water District employees noticed water coming up through a crack in the road in the evening.
The transmission main is a direct system feed from the water treatment facility to the water storage tanks on Jefferson Street. It was installed in 1960 and extends about 10,000 feet on Stillwater Avenue.
The district had installed a 12-inch ductile iron water main during the Stillwater Avenue road construction project in 2013 to be used in case of a failure of the 16-inch line.
Lane said it proved to be money well invested into the system infrastructure as the new line was used to bypass a portion of the 16-inch line to feed the water system as repairs took place on the original pipe.
Old Town Water District workers worked 17 hours to fix a 60-year-old water main that broke on Stillwater Avenue on July 7. (Courtesy of Old Town Water District)
The cause of the break appears to have been a rock that the pipe was laying on. The pressure from the rock caused an approximate 30-inch linear crack in the pipe. In the end an 8.5-foot piece of pipe had to be replaced in the line.
The only customer without water during the extended repair period was the Witter Farm. The District worked with the farm employees to ensure they could use necessary equipment and perform essential tasks as much as possible during the outage.
Lane commended his employees for their efforts put forth during the repair process.
“Working on Stillwater Avenue with high traffic volumes and handling 16-inch pipe and repair fittings during a 17-hour stretch is not an easy task,” he said.