There she blows! Road crews rupture water main on Russ

Jun. 17—A water line break along Russ Avenue in Waynesville Monday morning created a spectacular geyser, with a 30-foot-tall fountain of water spewing into the air.

The rupture occurred around 9 a.m. in front of the Wells Fargo building. It's currently unclear how much water was lost from the line before the flow was cut off or the timeline for the repair.

The line was hit by construction crews with the contractor for the Russ Avenue road-widening project. They were excavating around the line, which has to be moved back to make way for the larger road footprint, according to Max Buchanan, resident engineer for the westernmost division of the N.C. Department of Transportation.

The line was shallower than they thought it was, despite calling 811 — the "Call Before You Dig" hotline.

"In construction, you've got to call 811, which is the locating service," Buchanan said. "They called to locate."

The crews thought the line was deeper than it actually was.

However, 811 does not disclose a specific depth for a water line. Instead, it only gives a tolerance zone, according to Rory Phipps of Waynesville Public Works.

"You're supposed to hand dig around those lines or dig with caution," Phipps said.

The waterline is owned by the town of Waynesville, which was quick on the scene after getting a call about what happened.

"The town of Waynesville responded in about five minutes to turn the valves off," Buchanan said. "It shot up 30 feet in the air for probably 15 or 20 minutes."

Before making repairs, public works employees had to cut off the main source of water to the line. But it didn't stop the flow.

"They had to chase another valve because it was coming in from a side line," Buchanan said. "Finally got the water turned off enough that they could pump it and make repairs."

The repair entailed cutting out the broken piece of line and putting a coupler on to make a temporary connection. The temporary connection restored water in the short term until a brand-new line could be put in.

"This line that they're repairing is going to be abandoned," Buchanan said. "We've got to put a new one in. That's what we were in the process of."

The outage only affected Wells Fargo and potentially a few homes behind the old Hardee's site. The repair still wasn't completed by mid-afternoon Monday.

"It's not a major outage, but unfortunately, it's taking a little longer," Buchanan said. "Normally, you hit something like this, you get the water turned off, and you make repairs in a couple of hours."

Waynesville Water and Sewer Superintendent Wayne Bolin said that there weren't any major delays or mishaps that led to the longer repair time, however.

"That's just how it is sometimes," Bolin said. "They had to come back to the shop and get parts. You can't just carry a 12-inch piece of pipe on your truck."

Bolin said that road contractor will reimburse the town for the parts used.