Western Springs Main Breaks 'Par For the Course'

WESTERN SPRINGS, IL — Western Springs has its water main breaks, but the village's situation is similar to other nearby suburbs, officials said Monday.

"We are not atypical," Trustee Heidi Rudolph said at a Village Board meeting, in which most officials were connected remotely. "When we look at other villages around us with similar age water mains, the same thing happens. We all live in the same geography, the same sort of weather and temperatures. Unfortunately, it's par for the course. Is that correct?"

Casey Biernacki, the village's assistant director for municipal services, said it was.

"We are average with everyone else when it comes to breaks," he said.

The issue came up during a discussion of a main break on Lawn Avenue last Wednesday. The street had recently been redone, but the village did not replace the water mains, officials said.

The main on Lawn is about 60 years old, but is considered one of the "newer old mains," Biernacki told the board. Many other mains in towns are 80 or 90 years old, he said.

During the Lawn Avenue water main's lifespan, only two breaks have happened, Biernacki said.

"We don't expect it to start breaking all of a sudden," he said, but he added road reconstruction projects can sometimes add stress to mains.

When asked why Lawn was redone, Biernacki said it was in "pretty poor condition."

"That's typically how we direct those funds," he said.

Replacing mains as part of a two-block road construction project can add more than $500,000 to the price tag, Biernacki said.