Water line ruptures Friday on Front Street

A water line buried approximately three feet under Front Street ruptured Friday morning, causing water to blow out on the construction site of Wrangell’s road improvement project.

The incident occurred around 9 a.m. March 23 in front of the Alaska Island Community Services (AICS) billing office.

The incident caused water interruptions at the office Friday as well as a number of other businesses.

Kelsey Martinsen of the Diamond C said the restaurant, located next to the AICS office, was without water for approximately three hours. The coffee shop next to the diner was not affected, Martinsen said.

Wrangell Chamber of Commerce Office Manager Cyni Waddington said the Chamber office was also affected by the water line rupture. The Chamber is located on the opposite side of Front Street from the AICS office and Diamond C. Waddington said she could not flush the toilet at the office for most of the day Friday.

The water line rupture was caused when an excavator drove over the buried water line, which was sitting directly on top of a sewer pipe under the road, Ashton said.

“As we drove the excavator across the ground…all of a sudden the line blew and we had a geyser of water coming out and we lost water pressure,” said Ashton. “It was quite the river.”

The water pressure caused the road materials surrounding the pipe to wash away, he said. It also created a hole in the pipe that was at least a foot wide.

Ashton said he contacted the City and Borough of Wrangell after the incident, and crews worked to get the water valve shut off.

The incident is a perfect example of why the road improvement project along Front Street needs to be done, Ashton said.

The approximately 40-year-old asbestos-concrete water pipe was sitting on top of another concrete sewer line. There was no bedding material between the two pipes to absorb the shock of the weight of the heavy equipment operating over it.

The asbestos-concrete pipe is brittle and can break when it is set on something hard, such as another concrete pipe, Ashton said.

“It’s just fragile, that’s the bottom line,” he said. “It’s very, very fragile.”

The water line beneath Front Street was likely installed in the late 1960s or early 1970s, said Wrangell Public Works Superintendent Carl Johnson. He said the pipes are fragile, and when construction crews are digging and working around them, it is not a surprise if the pipes break.

“It’s just a very fragile material,” he said.

Johnson said the city has never had this kind of rupture on Front Street occur.

However, Ashton said just in the last few weeks while working between Lynch Street and Campbell Drive, similar incidents to Friday’s busted pipe have occurred. Water lines have broken numerous times, and crews have discovered pipes stacked upon hard surfaces including large rocks, Ashton said.

The break in the water line Friday created a hole too big to patch, Ashton said.

“When we have a major fracture like this, it’s not just quick, put a patch on it and go,” he said.

Ashton estimated the hole was at least a foot in length. He said the line had to be broken off at the next joint and then capped. Ashton expects crews to have installed a new water line by the end of this week.

Another problem crews have encountered on the road improvement project comes when they are looking for the water and other utility pipes in the ground to replace, Ashton said.

Crews have found that many times these services are actually in different locations than what the city plans show, or they don’t exist at all, he said. Ashton said they then have to spend time looking for where the lines actually are located.

Or, there is the issue of discovering the unexpected — such as Monday’s discovery of an oil tank buried under the road in front of Jerry’s Arcade. The oil tank sat where new pipe was set to be installed, and Ashton said it caused a delay in progress.

Johnson agreed the road project is time consuming work, but said the city plans are the “best guess” a contractor has to use on where the services are located. Hunting around for the lines in the road is part of the job, Johnson said.

“That’s part of the work,” he said.

Ashton encourages members of the public with questions about the project to contact him.