DETROIT (WXYZ) — Detroit and suburban officials are expecting hundreds of water main breaks in the next few days.
Detroit Water and Sewerage Director Gary Brown went through this last year.
“I checked the records. Last January we had 314 water main breaks for the whole month,” he said.
That included a break at the corner of John Kronk and Trenton with water flooding the street. Many people tried to drive through and got stuck.
Even today, Detroit was fixing 14 breaks before the really cold weather moves in.
“What causes the breaks in the system is really the temperature of the water getting down below 36 degrees and flowing through a pipe. It’s really the water mains that were put in after World War II with inferior product that give us the most problems,” Brown said.
And if you see something, say something. You can call 911.
Breaks usually start small.
Brown says, “We can put a sleeve on it. That will hold until we can come back on a later date and make a full repair.”
He also says they have city crews, contractors and subcontractors at the ready this week.
