Florence residents dealt with another major water main break on Wednesday and that has spurred town officials to address the ongoing problem.
“We understand our residents are understandably frustrated with these incidents and deserve further explanation regarding the causes and challenges associated with these events,” a town press release stated.
On Wednesday, a water main break took place at around 9:15 a.m. in the area of Adamsville Road and Central Avenue. A water shut-off affected service and pressure throughout the town's service area. The system-wide shut off was needed after the water-main issue was isolated.
At 12:35 p.m., as crews began to repressurize the system, workers discovered an additional, related leak. Crews once again suspended service to complete repairs. The water was restored at around 3 p.m.
In the press release, the town elaborated on the situation.
“First, regarding March 27’s outage, this break was caused by a contractor inadvertently hitting an unmarked valve during construction work,” the release stated. “Upon investigation, it was revealed that the valve in question was not marked in the town’s Geographic Information System (GIS) or identified during the project’s design survey. As a result, the valve was unfortunately impacted while the contractor was removing asphalt during a roadway excavation.”
The release stated that the Wednesday outage “and many recent incidents stem from a common set of factors and challenges facing the town.”
“These challenges include the age of our system, which can make it difficult to locate lines and isolate leaks, as well as the configuration and documentation of our system, which can lead to the unexpected or unknown presence of water lines in an area,” the release stated. “It's important to note that in the majority of these cases, these incidents are not attributable to the contractors working within our community.”
In an effort to reduce the number and severity of water breaks, the release stated that the town has taken “several proactive efforts,” such as utility staff modeling the system to identify capacity deficiencies, dead-end water lines, aging infrastructure, hydrant spacing and the types of materials used.
“All of these variables play a crucial role in determining what lines need to be replaced and which projects should be prioritized,” the release stated. “Additionally, the town allocates $600,000 annually to address undersized water lines and issues related to aging infrastructure.”
The town is also in the process of identifying water lines that are difficult to isolate during breaks. This process involves a multi-step method that involves engineering, planning and fieldwork.
Staff is also adding valves in the areas of Adamsville Road and Central Avenue as additional problem areas are identified.
“However, the addition of valves is a time-consuming and costly process considering the number of valves needed to avoid a complete system shutdown in certain areas,” the release stated. “While significant progress has been made, we recognize that there is still much work to be done to improve our water distribution system and minimize the impact of future incidents.”
The town also took the opportunity to remind residents about the Pinal Emergency Notification System which provides automatic emergency alerts to subscribers within Pinal County. The alerts are generated by on-site staff and are typically distributed before being shared on social media channels.
“We sincerely apologize for any inconvenience caused by (Wednesday’s) incident and assure residents that we are working diligently to address these issues and minimize future water incidents,” the release stated.
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