Hollister
– A one-block segment of San Benito Street was shut down Tuesday
and Wednesday due to a leaking water main.
Hollister – A one-block segment of San Benito Street was shut down Tuesday and Wednesday due to a leaking water main.
Joseph Arballo of the Hollister Water Department said water from the main – which services the Running Rooster Restaurant – may have been leaking for six months or more.
“It’s hard to say,” he said.
The source of the leak was a soldered connection between two copper pipes. A hole about one-eighth of an inch in diameter developed at the joint, Arballo said, and water started leaking out. Eventually, the water saturated the soil and started flooding the gutter and sidewalk on the west side of San Benito Street.
Arballo said city employees have been trying to fix the leak since Monday. The first thing they had to do was find it. The workers excavated the west side of the street – adjacent to the Running Rooster – and kept digging until they found the leaky pipe, Arballo said. On Monday, the city only had to close San Benito Street’s southbound lane, but as the digging moved eastward across the street, the entire road was shut down and traffic was rerouted to Monterey and East streets.
Water service continued throughout the repairs.
“We did it live,” Arballo said.
Running Rooster owner Jim Chapman said he’s glad the city didn’t have to stop water service to the restaurant, since that would have forced the business to shut its doors during the repairs. Although the closure of San Benito Street has reduced the available parking, Chapman said many of the Running Rooster’s regulars are still showing up.
“Our impression is that it hasn’t scared people away as much as we thought,” he said.
Arballo said his crew stopped the leak by placing stainless steel clamps around the pipe. He added that it’s not unusual for old copper pipes to start leaking, and the city hopes to eventually replace all the copper with plastic.
“But this should hold for 10, 15, 20 years,” Arballo said.
The city filled the hole with slurry – a mix of concrete and sand – and covered it with metal plates on Wednesday. Although Arballo said the street would be open on Thursday, it was still closed early Wednesday evening. Arballo also said San Benito Street will close again on Friday so the road can be repaved.
Anthony Ha covers local government for the Free Lance. Reach him at 831-637-5566 ext. 330 or [email protected].
