Hugo Water Main Break Causes Loss Of Service—and A Mess
HUGO - A water main break that occurred in Hugo eventually resulted in loss of municipal water service to over 500 homes until service was restored late the next day.
The break occurred on Thursday evening, Jan. 14, just west of Highway 61 on 142nd Street N. and water was visible bubbling up from beneath the ground, even in the dark, neighbors reported.
City Public Works Director Scott Anderson said that efforts by city public works crews through Th ursday night to valve off the aff ected section of pipe were unsuccessful. At 6 a.m. Friday, he said, the decision was made to shut off the entire area in an eff ort to forestall damage to a home near the break.
“Water was a foot-and-a-half deep on the street, and we just couldn’t let it get any deeper,” he said. The decision to shut down water service aff ected the water main that runs up and down Goodview Avenue, one mile to the east of the break, he said.
Residents getting up for work on Friday were faced with a lack of water for showers.
The water was so deep on the street that one resident, at least, couldn’t take her small car east on 142nd Street.
“The public works guys had to move their trucks to let me by so I could get out to Highway 61,” she said.
The outage continued throughout the day on Friday, Jan. 15, until about 4 p.m., when the break was fixed and the valves opened again, Anderson said.
One resident reported that the municipal water appeared discolored through the weekend. “The water in the toilet looked dirty,” she said.
On Tuesday morning, Jan. 19, public works crews were on site cleaning up the dirt from the ditches and pavement and hauling it away.
The street where the break occurred is scheduled for reconstruction this summer as part of the Egg Lake Neighborhood Reconstruction project.
“The plans for the Egg Lake neighborhood reconstruction project do include additional valves that will make it possible to isolate smaller areas of water main,” Anderson told The Citizen.
“This will mean fewer homes affected during water main breaks.”