Divers Work To Fix Broken Water Line Under Fort Lauderdale's New River
FORT LAUDERDALE (CBSMiami) – Divers are working to fix a water pipe that burst over the weekend under the New River.
The break occurred in a 16-inch water main that runs under the South Fork of the New River. Crews were able to isolate the break and stop water from flowing through the pipe. Divers were then sent in to do repairs.
"They're in the process of cutting out the old pipe. We think we found exactly where the break is. They'll measure it, they'll float a pipe in and take it down to where that break it and repair it like they would any other pipe," said City Manager Chris Lagerbloom.
Lagerbloom said the water main was put in some time in the early 1960's. Divers with Industrial Divers Corp. are the ones working on the fix. Dive coordinator Alex Delgado said they are working in very difficult conditions.
"Anytime you have the complexity of 35 feet down. That's a dark environment, you work a lot by feel. They're to the point where they're ready to cut the pipe out and take a new one down there," said.
Delgado added that the boat traffic, the type of sand and the depth of the pipe makes for a slow repair process.
"The canal at the center is about 20-25 feet deep, the pipe is located about 10-12 feet below bottom, so the divers have been excavating the bottom in order to get to the pipe," he said. "The bottom is very, very fine sand so it makes the digging very slow because it wants to come back into the hole."
City spokesman Chaz Adams said a boil water advisory for the area remains in effect.
"They are under a precautionary boil water notice. Water should be boiled before consuming it or using it for washing or other types of things," said Adams.
The break is impacting some local businesses, like the Riverside Market Cafe.. "Our sales in the past three days have dropped probably 30 percent," said owner Julian Siegel. "It's like a record low for weekends and if you look now we're barely half full in prime lunch hour," he said.
The restaurant is just feet away from the latest water main break. Siegel said when it happened Saturday, they had no water. Now, they and the whole area are under a boil water advisory. "We turned off the ice machine, we're boiling water, we have sanitizer, we're doing whatever we can," Siegel said. "Thank goodness we're well stocked with bottled beverages here, but water's water. It's one of those basic ingredients of life you can't live without," he said.
This latest water main break comes after another break last week on Fort Lauderdale beach and a sewer main break near George English Park that had raw sewage spewing into the middle river. Both breaks are repaired.
"I think they need to replace the entire water and sewer system in the city and for greater Broward County," said Karine Hoffman. "It's 20 years too late. So it's probably going to be continuous problems for the next decade or more unless they tear up everything."
The city said there's a plan going forward to upgrade the aging infrastructure that keeps breaking.
"Our infrastructure is getting up there in years, we have a plan in place that is going to, in the immediate term, invest about $600 million over the next five years in upgrades to water pipes, sewer pipes and some of our storm water infrastructure," said Adams.
During repairs, people around the South Fork area can expect lower water pressure at times, or possibly no water at all.
The boundaries of the precautionary boil water advisory are as follows:
- North fork of the New River (north)
- Davie Blvd. (south)
- Tarpon River up to and including SW 7 St.
- South fork of the New River (east)
- SW 15 Ave. (west)
Once repairs are made, the boil water notice will remain in effect until two consecutive days of passing test results.
If you have questions, you can call the city's 24-Hour help center at (954) 828-8000.