(Atlantic, IA) – Part of a street in Atlantic had to be torn-up and replaced, following the break of an older, 4-inch ductile iron water main pipe, Sunday afternoon. Atlantic Municipal Utilities General Manager Steve Tjepkes told KJAN News the break occurred at 6th and Palm Streets, at around Noon, Sunday. He said it took several hours to located the pipe, effect repairs, and then fill-in the hole.
Tjepkes said water main breaks aren’t unusual. They can happen any time of the year.
He said a sinkhole sometimes forms when that happens, in which case they enlarge it to gain access to the pipe and increase the work space. Unlike what happened in Omaha in late February, no vehicles were swallowed-up during the incident. The area in Atlantic affected by the water main break, was filled-in with rock and will be cemented over to make it good as new.
By coincidence, not related to the Atlantic incident,an issue occurred at about the same time, with an underground storage tank in Marne that caused water issues for the Cass County community, and that resulted in a highly localized boil order.
The boil order, he says, wasn’t distributed to the media or online, because it was such a local incident.
The order – which is a precaution -will be lifted once the test results come back showing no bacteria.
