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Show (lehind-Scenes Service Is Utility Crews' Job Vtilirv crews work behind le soenes, be they phone, oer. gas or water and ;er, and residents don"t see lie evidence of their presence Wess something goes awry, Vad the service is shut down. A A chronology of the break in e water line of 5th West last v tek serves to illustrate the v'ecjcarion of utility service . !es to their task of providing (5e best service possible, nder the circumstances, and jairing breaks and outages 1 nickly. ' I On Monday, May 19. Moab filter Superintendent Lynn I 'ay left work, and all systems seemed normal. On Tuesday morning the float valve in the water storage tank on the south side of town was moving down, indicating that water was being lost at a rate faster than normal useage would indicate. That valve should have been moving upward as water is normally flowing into the storage tanks faster than it is being used at that time of day. The city is divided into 3 pressure zones. Two pressure valves were working, but the one on Kane Creek Blvd. was not. indicating that pressure was being lost somewhere between there and Skakel Springs, northwest of town. There was a break somewhere in that line. Some residents had virtually no water, due to lack of pressure. All day Tuesday was spent examining the lines. A valve on 4th North was opened to reroute water and somewhat alleviate the no-pressure problem. pro-blem. At dusk that evening, the problem area finally showed itself, literally, as water flowed from underground under-ground above the level of Mill Creek and on into the creek just under the 5th West bridge. The area had been examined examin-ed previously during the day, but water had not yet worked it's way above the creek level, eroding a small cavern as it did so. It was raining. It rained all night. There were problems getting the necessary heavy equipment down under the bridge and into position w here the water was erupting. When that bridge w as built, a valve had been buried. Crews had to excavate to reach it before water could be shut off. They worked most of the night with the help of a flood light hooked into a welding generator, and removed an estimated 150 tons of mud and rocks, including 60-70 tons of boulders which had been hauled to the site when the W V W 9 W .T .T !f .T .9 J T T .' bridge was built to strengthen the abutment. The valve was reached, the water shut off, and workmen went home to bed. The repair project continued through the week, and at 8 p.m. Saturday, the pipes were fixed. All that remained was moving back those 60-70 tons of boulders. The project totaled 173 man hours, including includ-ing 3 days when night work was required. All in a days work? Not quite, said Lynn Day. But these emergencies do arise, and w hen they do they must be handled. It doesn't matter what day it might be. Last Thanksgiving half of the city crew worked part of the night and until 6 p.m. on Thanksgiving day to repair a leak in Spanish Valley. Dinner w as late, but they finally ate it. If the repair had not been finished at 6 p.m., well, then they would just have missed this holiday meal. That's part of the job. |