Water main breaks, floods downtown street
EUGENE, Ore. -- Water flooded Olive street in between 9th and 10th Street in downtown Eugene Tuesday, restricting the roadway to one lane of traffic.
The break happened at around 12 p.m. Tuesday when a contractor with the Lane Community College project downtown hit an 8 inch cast iron water main, the Eugene Water and Electric Board said.
The main sent water rushing out into the roadway, which prompted EWEB to close the southbound lane of Olive. Repair crews were able to restore service at around 3 p.m. and the street was reopened five minutes later.
The break only cut off water service to the Eugene Public Library.
Sometimes just using a compactor for soil and gravel will push rock's and other stuff into these old cast iron pipe's. So it's not always the person's fault that it got broke.
I thought everyone knew that you are supposed to call before digging. I guess this is only for private individuals, and not for big business and contractors. Well, this has happened a few times in recent history. Maybe the blueprints for underground water/electric lines, etc need to be updated, and have contractors actually look at them before getting out the hardware.... Or, our infrastructure is so old that the tiniest nudge will cause cracks and breakage.Â