Water Crews Stay Busy Repairing 4 Water Main Breaks

DENVER (CBS4) - Water crews repairied four water main breaks in the Denver metro area on Friday.

One was located at 101st and Sheridan Boulevard in Westminster and three others were in Denver. One was at South Newport Street and East Vassar Avenue and two were on Evans Avenue. One was at the intersection of Evans and University Boulevard and one at Evans and South Raritan Court.

The cold temps were the main culprit for the breaks. Fortunately the break at University and Evans had been isolated, so finished fixing that one early Saturday morning so it doesn't impact traffic.

The break along West Evans and South Raritan impacted traffic, so Denver Water worked hard Friday to repair that one. The break was mended at noon and the 13 businesses that lost water service in the morning now have it back. It's just a matter of filling the hole and paving for crews.

Over at Newport and Vassar, there was no traffic impact but there were 18 homes without water service at noon.

The main goal was finding the break and getting the water shut off.

The largest of the four breaks was located in Westminster. Water had been pouring out of the street between 100th and 101st avenues off of Sheridan since 3 a.m.

Crews there were waiting to shut off the water because there were more than 200 homes that were impacted if they did that.

Westminster Public Works officials say they supplied a different water source to residents in that area and once it was hooked up they completely shut the water off. All that water flowed out of a 30 inch pipe.

It was a big repair job, mostly thanks to Mother Nature, according to Westminster Public Works spokesman Max Kirschbaum said.

"There are certain times of the year when it's a little bit more prevalent than other times of the year. We've actually had a fantastic year with very few breaks. We're well below our average number for the year. But (with) these temperature changes it's not unexpected," Kirschbaum said.