Two Latest Water Main Breaks Bring Renewed Focus On Baltimore's Aging Infrastructure
BALTIMORE (WJZ) -- Water was restored to a downtown Baltimore building overnight after a water main broke Monday shutting access to roads and a building in the area.
Meanwhile, in southwest Baltimore, another water main break impacted nearly two dozen apartment buildings and a school.
Crews worked overnight to repair the broken water main under Hanover Street, restoring water service to the 100 S. Charles Street building.
Officials believe the issue was with a valve and not the actual pipe, which made it easier to repair.
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- Broken Water Main Affecting Beechfield Elementary, Apartment Building
The water main broke Monday during afternoon rush hour and just minutes after police and fire officials gave the all-clear with an incident involving a suspicious vehicle downtown. It filled a normally busy downtown road with water, shutting down vehicular traffic -- adding to the delays downtown -- and preventing employees in that building from accessing their cars to get home.
The water main break also caused a visible discoloration in the Inner Harbor.
The southwest Baltimore break happened Tuesday morning on Beechfield Avenue. WJZ was on the scene as workers dug into the ground to repair the 16-inch pipe. Beechfield Elementary School and the Caral Gardens Apartments were impacted.
It's not the first time this summer a large water main break happened downtown.
Back in July, a water main broke near the stadiums, shutting down blocks for several weeks for the repairs.
Baltimore sees about 1,000 water main breaks each year, and the Department of Public Works replaces miles of the most vulnerable pipes before they burst, but with limited money and time, it's hard to keep up.
"It really holds us all back. The city's got a lot of potential," said Mike Singer, adding it was "almost impossible" to get home after the Hanover Street break.
"It took nearly an hour to get out of my office building," he said.
Other city residents took a similar tone.
"At least they know there's an issue, and they're trying to fix it," said Baltimore resident Joseph Ferguson.
Robert Yochem, who lives in Fells Point, has concerns about the ongoing infrastructure failures.
"I don't know if there's an easy solution," he said. "We live in an almost 500-year-old city. I'm just wondering where and when these issues are going to pop up again."
Even with the problems, Yochem said it's not as easy as blaming one person or department for the infrastructure woes.
"It's absolutely a local, state and federal problem," Yochem said. "I'm not going to point the finger directly at the mayor because I know it's a bigger problem than that."
