Might be settling, but this was a fairly new plastic pipe....

Settling blamed for break in water pipe

Source: The Idaho Statesman

Publication date: Feb 09, 2000

A water main break in downtown Boise appears to have been caused by shifting earth, rather than an equipment failure, a water company official said Tuesday.

The split water main gushed more than a million gallons Monday, causing a massive sinkhole on the 1200 block of Washington Street and flooding a basement.

The hole the break created was 4 to 6 feet deep, 10 to 12 feet wide and 20 feet long.

A Boise Police officer was driving through the water when the patrol car's front wheels slipped into a hole in the pavement created by the break. The car, due to be sold as surplus anyway, was towed out.

The water main was replaced with a plastic pipe in 1997 when the street was rebuilt, according to United Water Idaho Inc. assistant manager Ben Hepler.

Hepler said a cap blew off the 3-year-old line, and the failure likely was caused by fill around the line settling.

"This did not appear to be a material failure," Hepler said. "It looked like there was ground movement." Crews that replaced the pipe Monday poured a larger concrete block for the joint to sit on, to prevent another separation in case of further shifting.

The break shut down water service from Bannock to State Street and from 11th to 14th streets, Hepler said.

After 45 minutes, workers found the leak and cut off the flow, leaving eight or nine Washington Street residents between 13th and 15th streets without water. One home had damage in the basement. An insurance adjuster for United Water will assess the damage.

Hepler said about 40 water mains burst or leaked in 1999 in Boise's 700 miles of pipe. Only one or two were of the magnitude of Monday's break.

Publication date: Feb 09, 2000 ) 2000, NewsReal, Inc.

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