South Arlington Water Main Breaks Cut Off Service for Thousands Overnight

A series of water main breaks in South Arlington sent workers scrambling last night into this morning, though the county now seems to have made all the necessary repairs.

The problems started around 7 p.m. yesterday (Wednesday), when the county’s Department of Environmental Services received word of pipe problems near the intersection of Columbia Pike and S. Frederick Street.

A short time later, workers encountered another water main break not far away at S. Park Drive, just off Route 50.

https://twitter.com/LuckyLyzzie/status/1034884501909000193

By 10 p.m., they reported several other water main breaks along the pike running up to S. Dinwiddie Street as well, and determined that the S. Park Drive problem was “related” to the previous breaks. DES spokeswoman Katie O’Brien told ARLnow that the subsequent breaks all stemmed from work on the first one, located along the 5000 block of Columbia Pike.

“After the break was repaired, crews were pressurizing the water main which caused it to break again,” she said. “As a result, this caused two additional breaks in the area.”

O’Brien estimates that anywhere from 3,000 to 4,000 people were left without water during the work. However, as of roughly 9 a.m., all the mains have been repaired.

DES is warning of continued repaving work in the area through the afternoon, however.

Arlington has some 500 miles of mains bringing water to homes, schools and businesses. As in most urban American towns, a lot of those mains have been in the ground and working non-stop since before World War II. https://t.co/sIiPntUil6 pic.twitter.com/JTpuUrIgYj

— Arlington DES (@ArlingtonDES) August 30, 2018

Photos 1 and 3 via @ArlingtonDES, photo 2 via @LuckyLyzzie