July 2012 Water Main Breaks at Old River Drive and Apollo Road

Repair Work

Two water main breaks in recent weeks have resulted in significant repairs to the West Linn water system.  Learn more about these projects and view videos and pictures below.

Old River Drive:

Water crews are conducting some clean up and repair the valve that feeds Cherokee Ct. It broke in a partly closed position and homes in this area have limited water volume at this time. It is a 1946 galvanized line and valve, crews will likely have to shut the system down again to make repair (affecting 11 homes). 56 homes were shut down yesterday. Crews will also need to clean the sewer line in that area due to the the silt and debris flowing into the line at the break. The line that was hit was mis-located, at no fault of the contractor. It is an AC line, which are un-locatable. Staff will do the best we can with the maps we have and other techniques, which are not always accurate. The contractor worked well with the City to help make repair and staff assisted with his work to get the street open to traffic.  Photos of this break are available online here.

Apollo Road:

West Linn Public Works received a call at 4:00 a.m. on Tuesday, July 10, 2012 that water was gushing down the road. When Public Works arrived on site they throttled the water down to minimize damage. Water was off to four homes for the majority of the day. To make the repair Public Works had to replace 15 feet of the deteriorated 6 inch water main. Public Works is still finishing up with temporary road repairs today so traffic can use the road safely. Within the next couple of weeks Public Works will need to make permanent repairs to the road. Watch a video of the water main break online.