A water main break occurred this morning on Colonial Terrace just west of N Ode St. Arlington County staff from Water, Sewer and Streets were on site early today and later joined by Virginia Dominion Power employees. The street was opened and a deep trench was dug down to the water main where the leak was identified and repaired with a patch collar. Much of the work was done by hand due to a high voltage conduit running above the water main. Because of a nearby power pole and the depth of the trench, Virginia Dominion used a truck with a support boom to stabilize the power pole next to the trench.

In the accompanying file, the first picture shows the patched pipe in place next to a hose used to pump out water. The second picture is a closer view of the silver colored patch on the black pipe and the third picture shows the street cut, pump, and some of the equipment used to make the repair.

The crew lead from Arlington County is recommending that Arlington approve budget for relocating this water main replacing the patched pipe with new pipe located in the center of Colonial Terrace. This would separate the water main from the electrical conduit making any needed future repairs simpler, faster and safer. The process to budget, approve, design and do the move would most likely be no sooner than summer of fall of 2017.

At this same location a little over 13 years ago on June 13, 2003,a nearby tree fell across the above ground utility lines tilting the nearby power pole and puncturing this same water main.

Water_main_break_2016-10-08.pdf (244 Kb, 199 downloads) Water main break pictures

Plus there was a break there just a few months ago. So clearly something needs to be done here.