Loop rushes to normalcy

February 11, 2000 BY FRAN SPIELMAN CITY HALL REPORTER

Traffic should be back to normal in the South Loop by the Monday morning rush, a week after a century-old water main ruptured and closed several streets.

"Once again, Chicagoans have shown they're capable of dealing calmly and rationally with adversity, whether it's a power blackout, a blizzard, a broken water main or a hole in the river," Daley said.

More than 200,000 CTA riders faced a commuting nightmare Monday night and Tuesday morning after a 36-inch water main broke beneath the L tracks. The pipe sent forth a geyser that created a 20-foot-wide, six-foot-deep sinkhole at Quincy and Wells.

Fortunately, the water main break did not damage the columns that support the Wells Street L tracks. Wells Street near Quincy remained closed Thursday but will be ready for vehicle traffic Monday morning.

Daley summoned reporters to the site of the sinkhole Thursday to highlight his administration's efforts to prevent similar disasters.

Water and sewer rate increases tied to the mayor's 2000 budget will finance $790 million worth of upgrades over the next five years. Fifty miles of water mains and 15 miles of sewers will be replaced during each of the next five years. Just a few years ago, water mains were being replaced at a rate of just 15 miles a year.

"Even with the massive capital improvement program, we cannot guarantee that another water main won't rupture some time in the future. . . . This is an old system," Daley said. "We cannot replace all 4,200 miles [of water mains] overnight."

Seventy percent of the city's 4,200 miles of water mains are more than 70 years old and made of cast iron. Ductile iron used to construct newer water mains is "a little more flexible," Water Commissioner Rick Rice said.

Although the 100-year-old pipe that ruptured was made of more-brittle cast iron, Daley said he does not believe that was the cause of Monday's problem.

"Cast iron is the best," the mayor said.

Daley's 11-year administration has faced its share of infrastructure disasters, including the 1992 and 1997 Loop floods, the 1992 Michigan Avenue bridge mishap and last summer's Loop power blackout.

On Wednesday, the city detected another leak on Wabash near Congress that caused the main to be shut down overnight. "That's an example of what we go through each day," Rice said.

Sewer Commissioner John Kosiba said the infrastructure in the downtown area is "no more vulnerable" than it is in any other part of the city.

But Kosiba said: "There's different factors that come into play [in the Loop]: the vibrations from the L tracks, the heavy truck traffic, all the extra construction in the downtown area. All of that could affect it."

Link:

http://www.suntimes.com/output/news/flood11.html

-- Carl Jenkins (Somewherepress@aol.com), February 11, 2000

Answers

link

-- (kb8um8@yahoo.com), February 11, 2000.

So, the pipe broke after dozens of years of service, but it's not the pipe's fault.... ?

Must be a politician spreading BS ....not a plumber trying to repair pipes to contain the BS before it polutes something else.

-- Robert A. Cook, PE (Marietta, GA) (cook.r@csaatl.com), February 11, 2000.