Water Line Break Snarls Traffic

A water main break disrupted traffic and kept city crews busy all night and all day Friday.  The News On 6's Emory Bryan reports the break happened near 51^st and Harvard.

The break is repaired, but there's some street repair work left, after a break that created a small pond at the intersection Thursday night.

The ruptured pipe flooded the intersection and the water stayed put most of the night, requiring a police officer to warn drivers as they passed through.  It backed up traffic.

By daylight city workers had located the break, shut off the flow, dug up the street, pumped out the water and started making repairs.  It was a muddy mess.

"When you have something along an arterial street, you throw all the manpower you have at it at the time to take care of the situation and try to disrupt traffic as little as possible," said the City of Tulsa's Mike Augustine.

The pipe was more than ten feet down and usually feeds the businesses south of the intersection.  The break was in the best possible spot, between two valves, so it could be isolated without turning off the water to anyone.

Even though 51st and Harvard is often a congested intersection, most drivers saw the signs and took other routes.

The pipe with the problem was a 12 inch line that can carry 14,000 gallons of water a minute.  It came apart probably because of movement in the ground.

These kinds of breaks are more common during changing weather that makes the soil contract and expand with enough force to break iron pipe.

"It comes in cycles, it doesn't, but this spring has been very low on the breaks, we've been very fortunate," said the City of Tulsa's Mike Augustine.

The city also had a 10 inch main break overnight over at 46th and Memorial.

They say though the spring has been pretty mild when it comes to the kind of freeze and thaw that ruptures pipes.

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6/5/2008  Water Line Break In Midtown