A water main broke that broke Thursday on Fourth Street near the sheriff’s office headquarters will indefinitely shut off a portion of the busy road – while another main later failed on the west side – becoming the latest in a series of more than a dozen malfunctions for the downtown system in recent years.
About a mile away from the break near the sheriff’s office, that second leak developed Friday morning after 10 a.m. on Madera Court off Central Avenue, prompting city crews to shut off water service to residents in the area as it bubbled out of cracks in the pavement and along the gutters.
It was not immediately known if the two leaks were related, but crews restored water service to the areas affected by the damages.
The Fourth Street water main broke shortly before 11 p.m. Thursday near the downtown Hollister area.
Though crews finished most of the work Friday to the Madera Court matter, it is unclear when the Fourth Street main break might be repaired completely.
“That section of Fourth Street is closed indefinitely, said Jim Hart, a utility official with Hollister public works. “It’s very, very thick pavement there to try and get through.”
Another public works official, Henry Gonzales, noted Monday that crews were out excavating the site. Once that is done, workers will replace a 20-foot pipe that is 12 inches thick, along with a 12-inch valve, he said.
For now, all of the work is being handled in house, but the city might have to hire an outside firm for paving on Fourth Street – an area that is about 50 feet by 30 feet, Gonzales said.
“Right now we’re looking at, we’re hoping to possibly have a new piece cut in today – if not, tomorrow,” he said Monday morning.
Hollister officials have long known about the problems with an aging downtown water-main system. A staff report from November 2010, when council members agreed to pay San Benito Engineering & Surveying $18,000 to study a potential system overhaul, said that “numerous line breaks” have plagued the area for years, forcing emergency repairs and road closures along the well-traveled route.
City Manager Clint Quilter on Monday said that consultant’s report is unfinished because Hollister must first finish its urban area masterplan for water. It involves a treatment plant in the west hills, which would affect planning details for the water-piping system. Quilter expects the master plan to be done within the next four to six months, he said.
Impacts in short term
As for the short-term impacts, Hart said it appears most customers affected who were immediately without water included the nearby county offices. The County Administration Building neighbors the San Benito County Sheriff’s Office headquarters on Fourth Street. Water was available on the other side of the block at the courthouse, he said.
Traffic is being detoured around the repair site through residential neighborhoods.
On Madera Court, resident Victor Torres said he had noticed last Thursday that water was coming up through cracks on the street.
“We called twice, and the city didn’t get back to us,” he said, though the water did stop flowing. “There were bubbles here, bubbles there,” he added, as water gurgled and mud flowed into the gutters in front of his house.
City crews showed up within 15 minutes of the report of the water leak and shut off water to the street at 10:51 a.m.
