Motorists who normally use Ohio Street to make their way through town will need to find a new route for the next week.
The street will be closed between Carter Street and Vaile Avenue after a water main bust Wednesday night caused damage to a storm sewer and manholes. Murden Street east of Ohio will also be closed.
The 10-inch line burst approximately 8:30 p.m. and it took Indiana-American Water Co. and Environmental Construction Inc. employees seven hours to repair the damage, according to Mike Ward, operations superintendent for Indiana-American. Workers had to replace a 7-foot section of pipe. Approximately 25 customers were without water until the break was fixed.
The burst likely was the result of a water hammer — a hard burst of water through the pipes — that occurred Wednesday morning after power was lost shortly at the water treatment plant.
“That’s what we’re suspecting. When you lose power like that, you get a water hammer. With the onset of variable-speed pumps, we’ve eliminated a lot of that, but we still get them occasionally,” Ward said. “The water hammer finds a weak spot or sometimes it shakes a joint loose. In this particular case, it looked like a weak spot.”
The bust caused the pressure to drop a bit at the treatment plant.
“When we have a line that large that go like that, they can see it in the production of the water,” he said. “They saw some pressure loss there, but there was nothing significant that caused a problem.”
The bigger problem came with the city’s storm sewer lines, according to Tim Winchester, a sewer foreman for the Department of Public Maintenance and Refuse.
“The water got into an old sewer so we have to replace a section of line. The water also got into the bottom of another manhole structure so we have to rebuild that structure,” he said.
“If everything goes smoothly, it will take a week. Due to another water main, we have to go down and underneath that to repair this.
“It’s a bad intersection because there are so many sewer lines and structures. But, we really hate to shut down a road.”
In addition to the 10-inch water line that runs along Ohio, the water company has a 6-inch line that runs east-west along Murden. The city has two sewer lines and a small storm sewer line.
The break also damaged a second manhole.
“But, we didn’t need it anymore so we eliminated that manhole,” Winchester said.
The only traffic that will be allowed access to Ohio Street are trucks making deliveries and pickups at Indolux.
John Dempsey may be contacted at (765) 854-6739 or by e-mail at john.dempsey@kokomotribune.com
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Water main problem shuts down Ohio Street
Section of Murden Street also closed
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