Company Cited For Fort Lauderdale Water Main Break Was Digging In Wrong Area
MIAMI (CBSMiami) - The company cited for the water main break in Fort Lauderdale last week was digging in the wrong area.
When a 42-inch pipe was ruptured last week, it cut off water to more than 220,000 people in the Fort Lauderdale area.
Channel 4 is getting a look at the Sunshine 811 ticket submitted by contractor Florida Communication Concepts. This is the system used to check to see if there are underground utilities or pipes buried where you plan on digging.
This is the system used to check to see if there are underground utilities or pipes buried where you plan on digging.
"Our preliminary results are that while they did go through the 811 process, the address that was listed on the 811 tickets was actually not the address where they were doing the digging," said Chaz Adams, City of Fort Lauderdale Spokesman.
The location where the pipe was ruptured is nearby, but not at the listed address.
"If you look at the location that's on the ticket, 2525 NW 55th Court, the city does not have a water line running under that area. If you look 250 feet to the northeast, we do have a utility, water main running in that area. Had that address been on the ticket than certainly we would have made it known that there was a water main in that area," said Adams.
Referring to the area where they were digging, Adams said, "Well, it's actually quite a distance away and when you talk about utilities and pipes you really need to be exact about the locations."
Homes had no water for a few hours and businesses closed racking up some big losses, like at the Riverside Hotel.
"How much money are we talking about? Probably $40,000. That's not a small amount. That's a big number," said Heiko Dobrikow of the Riverside Hotel.