Serving Gogebic, Iron and Ontonagon Counties
Serving Gogebic, Iron and Ontonagon Counties
A WATER line break in the 100 block of East Gold Street in Bessemer on Tuesday evening was responded to by the Bessemer Department of Public Works. The DPW assessed the leak, dug through the frost line to expose the line and cut out the damaged pipe to repair the leak Wednesday morning. It only took the DPW about 2.5 hours to repair the line and fill in the hole.
By IAN MINIELLY
Bessemer - The Bessemer Department of Public Works "knew something was up for a couple of days," according to department head Neal Nelson. DPW workers noticed a higher than normal flow of water coming through the water system, but they did not know where the problem was.
Before the break became evident on Tuesday evening, a resident on the 100 block of East Gold Street called to inform a friend that she was hearing a strange sound coming from her water pipes. When the friend arrived, he cautioned her not to do anything because he thought it was probably a city problem.
Later Tuesday night, the break became evident when the ice melted in the middle of East Gold and began flowing down the street.
The DPW assessed the break and at first could not tell if it was a service line or the main line, but was certain it was the issue they had detected. On Wednesday morning, the DPW arrived in force. Within two hours, a hole was excavated through the frost line and about 10 feet down, exposing the service line and the hole causing the leak.
The water was turned off, the bad line cut and replaced with fresh piping within 2.5 hours.
Nelson said there aren't a lot of breaks in town, usually about one per year, and this section of road and piping is already scheduled for replacement in 2018.
