BREAKING: Repairs on Water Main Near Piedmont to Last Throughout Day

Repairs to an 82-year-old water main that broke in Oakland near the Piedmont border early this morning are expected to last the rest of the day, an East Bay Municipal Utility District spokeswoman said. The 12-inch cast iron main break was reported at about 4 a.m. at Santa Clara and Oakland avenues, EBMUD spokeswoman Tracie Morales-Noisy said.

Thousands of gallons of water escaped before crews shut the flow off about an hour later. Streets in the area were flooded, but there were no reports of damage to cars or houses in the neighborhood, Morales-Noisy said. The district called in a vacuum truck to suck the water out of the street.

Two lanes of Oakland Avenue remain closed this morning and 14 customers don’t have water service as the repairs continue. Work on the main is expected to last the rest of the day. Oakland had five water mains break Monday after a 4.0-magnitude earthquake that morning, and while Morales-Noisy said it’s possible this main was also damaged in Monday’s earthquake, it could be normal problems with the aging system.

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Between two and three water mains usually break on any given day within the 331-square-mile district, where the average age of cast iron pipes is 80 years old, Morales-Noisy said.

By Bay City News

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