This story has been updated with additional information.
A water main break forced the closure of a stretch of West Market Street in Akron’s Wallhaven neighborhood early Wednesday, Jan. 21, city officials said.
Repair work was expected to keep the road closed to traffic until sometime Jan. 22.
Akron Water Supply Bureau Manager Scott Moegling said after crews fixed the initial break, another less serious one occurred east of the original rupture. West Market Street will remain closed between Westgate Circle and Manor Road. He said he hopes the road will open sometime tomorrow afternoon.
“There’s a lot of road to fix out there,” Moegling said. The break forced detours from the city’s main east-west throughfare in a section that connects the Highland Square area to Fairlawn.
Fixing the new break overnight was a question of finding enough staff for the task, Moegling said. Many of the crew members were exhausted from working in the cold all day. When exhaustion sets in, he said, work becomes unsafe.
Drivers are being asked to avoid the area and use alternate routes while repairs are underway.
Nearby Hawkins Avenue remained open for north and southbound traffic, city officials noted.
The first break was reported overnight, and Akron Water Department crews were dispatched to shut off water to the affected line and begin emergency repairs. A boil water advisory will likely not be issued, as no depressurization has been reported in the area, the city confirmed.
Crews spent several hours cleaning mud and debris from West Market Street before excavation could begin in an effort to prevent material from freezing to the roadway.
Most customers in the area continue to have normal water service. Officials said only a small number of properties located between closed valves near the break may be affected, and no widespread outages were reported.
According to the Akron Water Department, the damaged line is a 12-inch ductile iron main installed in 1981. Officials said the pipe is not considered old and does not fit the typical pattern of aging infrastructure failures often seen during winter months.
“Forty to 50 years is not an old pipe,” Moegling said.
Why are water main breaks more common in the winter?
Cold weather is a major factor in water main breaks, particularly during winter, Moegling said. Sudden temperature swings — from relatively warm to extremely cold or vice versa — can cause the ground to shift, placing stress on water lines. Those rapid changes are often the final factor that causes a pipe to break, even in lines that were previously intact.
Moegling noted water lines are replaced on an annual basis through the city’s capital improvement program. Pipes are prioritized for replacement based on age, break history and their importance to maintaining reliability across the system.
Derek Kreider contributed to this report. Anthony Thompson can be reached at ajthompson@gannet.com, or on Twitter @athompsonABJ
This article originally appeared on Akron Beacon Journal: Water main break shuts down West Market Street in Wallhaven
Reporting by Anthony Thompson, Akron Beacon Journal / Akron Beacon Journal
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