Crews work to restore natural gas service to downtown Akron after pipe breaks, water flows into gas lines
This article has been updated.
The rupture of a 94-year-old water main near Akron Children’s Hospital and the subsequent loss of natural gas service to Dominion Energy Ohio customers in the area had work crews scrambling Saturday and into Sunday morning to fix the problems.
Early Saturday morning, water pressure built up from the 16-inch water main buckled a section of West Center Street.
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As a city of Akron crew repaired the line, gas service was disrupted for about 100 Dominion customers in the area, said Stephanie Moore, senior communications specialist with the gas company.
“Crews responded to an outage earlier today and are investigating the source of water in the lines, which has impacted natural gas service,” Moore said.
The company received a call late morning about the problem and began investigating, Moore said in a phone interview Saturday night. Extra crews were sent out to work on the issue and planned to work overnight to restore service to affected customers.
Brian Lapolla, Akron Children’s Hospital vice president for facilities, planning, construction and public safety, said neither heat nor water issues affected service or patient care at the hospital, which uses city steam for heating.
Water service continued as city crews assessed and repaired the water main damage, he said.
Lapolla said, however, that some administrative buildings and sections of Ronald McDonald House of Akron on West Street lost natural gas service. But about 13 families at the Ronald McDonald House won’t have to leave, he said.
“Their family rooms are heated via electric, (so) the rooms are heated,” Lapolla said. “Some of the common areas are heated by gas.”
Lapolla said hospital employees who work in affected administrative buildings were contacted and told to work remotely on Monday. Many of the 100 to 200 employees were already working from home due to COVID-19 protocols, he said.
Akron Director of Public Service Chris Ludle said early Saturday afternoon he became aware of the water main issue in an early morning call from the hospital.
“(They) called and said it looked like there (might) be a water main break,” he said.
He arrived shortly before 8 a.m. to find water oozing from underneath the road.
“When we got there, it was just barely coming up through the ground,” he said.
Although the temperature was still below zero at the time, Ludle said he couldn’t definitively attribute the break to the frigid weather conditions.
“It didn’t freeze,” he said. “We’ve seen this in the summertime (too).”
Ludle said service at the hospital continued as efforts to fix the water main began. He said redundancies in the system often help prevent loss of service in such cases, although water pressure can be affected.
“We haven’t had any calls of people without water service,” he said.
The main was installed in 1928 at a time of rapid growth in Akron to feed commercial buildings nearby. The old AAA Akron structure, purchased by the organization in 1948 and occupied in 1950, was located in the immediate vicinity of the breach on West Center Street. In 2016, the organization moved to new facilities on Rosa Parks Drive to make way for Akron’s giant sewer tunnel project.
Ludle said the amount of water flowing from the break undermined the road above, leading to the collapse.
“(With) this size of water main, the road caved,” he said. “We will have to come back in and repair the road.”
Ludle said city crews work on three or four water main breaks a day. The public service director said his department was able to pull up records for the main and assemble a crew quickly to tackle the problem.
“We mobilized a group within an hour,” he said.
Moore said customers affected by the outage were able to access a city warming shelter until about 10 p.m. last night and again at 8 a.m. Sunday morning.
She said those affected included a mix of residential and business customers. The company was attempting to contact those residents and businesses.
“(We’re) working on an automated message for customers,” she said.
The company was not immediately able to determine the connection between the main break and water in Dominion lines.
But Lapolla said water from the main flowed downhill and froze at some gas meter locations.
“The water going downstream caused Dominion gas lines to freeze, especially as they come out of buildings,” he said. “Those gas lines coming into the buildings have frozen, so that impacts the heating.”
The city, hospital and Dominion stayed in communication throughout the day, Lapolla said.
“Everybody is doing the absolute best they can,” he said.
Ludle said he expected crews would be able to replace and sleeve the section of split pipe by afternoon Saturday.
“About 4 p.m. we will have that fixed and start backfilling,” he said.
The West Center Street collapse occurred about 9:30 a.m. as crews assessed the situation. Ludle said they had anticipated that possibility.
“With all that pressure, it undermines the road,” he said. “We got there (and) blocked off the road just in case.”
Ludle said the age of the water main probably played a role in the pipe’s failure.
“Something 94 years old just split,” he said.
Leave a message for Alan Ashworth at 330-996-3859 or email him at aashworth@gannett.com. Follow him on Twitter at @newsalanbeaconj.
Preventing damage to pipes when heat goes out
Customers should consider taking these steps to prevent damage to their pipes, according to Dominion Energy Ohio:
• Let water from drop from the faucet. A trickle of water might be all it takes to keep your pipes from freezing.
• Open cabinet doors. This allows any heat to travel to uninsulated pipes under sinks and appliances near exterior walls.
• Or you may choose to shut off the water and drain the water system. Be aware that if you have a fire protection sprinkler system, it may be deactivated when you shut off the water.
This article originally appeared on Akron Beacon Journal: Workers repair 94-year-old water main near Akron Children's Hospital
