City workers work through the night after water main breaks in Ukiah Tuesday – The Ukiah Daily Journal
Late Tuesday evening, a major water main burst at the corner of Waugh Lane and Cooper Lane, cutting off water supplies to many residents for nearly twelve hours.
Ukiah Police arrived at the intersection around 8:15 p.m. on August 27 and immediately closed the road as water was flooding the roadway and swelling the asphalt. Ukiah Valley Fire Department and Ukiah City Public Works Department personnel also responded to the incident.
“Our crews responded immediately and were able to isolate the problem to a smaller section of Waugh Lane,” said Deputy City Manager Shannon Riley, noting that “due to the proximity to a high-pressure gas line, they had to wait over two hours for PG&E to respond before repairs (to the water main) could begin.”
Riley said crews “worked through the night and restored water service around 7 a.m. Wednesday morning.” She added that she could not say “exactly how many customers on Waugh Lane were affected, but we have been in contact with the managers of the largest apartment complexes there.”
Large parts of the city reported changes in water pressure, and residents on Ukiah’s west side reportedly had low pressure or no water “from Capps Lane to Washington Blvd.”
Riley explained that the loss of water pressure particularly affected the west side due to the higher elevation and that “the reduced water pressure was due to the rupture in one of our largest mains (12 inches compared to most others which are four to six inches). Gravity pulled water out of the system and allowed air into the lines. While some crews immediately attended to the Waugh Lane area, others were in the higher areas opening fire hydrants to release the air and bring water pressure back to normal.”
When asked why the water main broke, Riley attributed it to “old infrastructure,” adding that the break “shows why these infrastructure projects we do all over the city are so important. People wonder why it takes so long to ‘fix’ a street, and that’s because most of the time we also replace all the underground water and sewer lines, some of which are about 100 years old!”
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