Repairs to fix a broken main on West Peachtree Street and 11th Street in Midtown continue, but the city said Tuesday evening that water service should return to normal by morning.
Crews worked all day at the site, one of two significant breaks since Friday afternoon that left thousands with little or no pressure and many other residents forced to boil water. Many businesses have also felt the impact and suffered financial woes.
Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens made an appearance at the site Tuesday — the fifth day of the city’s water crisis.
“Making progress,” Dickens told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. “(I’m) so ready for this to be over. So are the residents around here.”
Around 8 p.m., officials said smaller valves were being turned on along 11th Street, and water had returned to some businesses near the main break. Water service is expected to return to normal between 7 and 11 a.m. Wednesday, the city stated. A boil water advisory remains in place for areas impacted by the break.
A large 30-inch pipe was seen being lowered into the hole Tuesday morning. According to the city, the Department of Watershed Management conducted the remaining steps to restore water service. As a precaution, the city said the department would follow its “flushing protocols for the system” and had sampled the impacted zones to make sure there was no contamination in the system.
“Finally getting it set,” the mayor said earlier Tuesday, adding that the pipe was “too old” and had been around for about a century.
DWM Commissioner Al Wiggins Jr. explained that the old pipe was removed because it was connected to a fire hydrant adjacent to the Eleventh Street Pub. Tuesday afternoon, he said there was one last coupling that needed to be installed and some pressure to be added so crews could tighten it. After those steps were complete, he said all the lines would be pressurized and flushed to make sure the water was safe to drink.
“And (then) we’ll be wrapping this project up,” Wiggins said.
West Peachtree remained closed from 10th Street to 12th Street, with restricted access to the bike lane and sidewalk on the east side of the road. The opposite sidewalk is closed from 10th to 12th Street
“To preserve the safety of work crews and the public, we ask that pedestrians, e-scooter riders and bicyclists refrain from entering the construction area between 10th Street and 12th Street,” officials said. “Please keep the construction zone clear of all types of traffic as crews work to repair the water main and restore water services to the surrounding community.”
Dickens, who has taken criticism from residents over the lack of communication during the crisis, was escorted out of a news conference at the West Peachtree site Monday without taking questions but was much more visible Tuesday.
His office has been coordinating with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, which confirmed during an afternoon news conference that assistance was headed to the city. The agency also announced it will work with the city to consider the possibility of doing an assessment of the entire water system.
“We have sought their assistance because they have the most experience in handling a crisis like this,” the mayor stated. “They will help us develop a plan to assess and evaluate our aging infrastructure.”
Dickens has declared a state of emergency in Atlanta to free up resources for repairs. The city also earlier activated a joint operations center, improving the regularity of communications.
While work was being done in the area, Norfolk Southern was limiting the use of its headquarters building on West Peachtree Street near the intersection of Third Street to essential employees to minimize potential strain on the building and mitigate traffic. At the same time, the clerk’s office at the 11th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals, located on Forsyth Street in downtown, closed again. And Atlanta Public Schools canceled its summer school and summer programs for the second day in a row.
“We appreciate your patience and understanding as we ensure the safety of our students and staff,” the school district said in a social media post.
Georgia Tech, one of the largest stakeholders in Midtown, remains under a boil water advisory but has otherwise mostly been unaffected. Its campus, about a mile southwest of the broken West Peachtree water main, experienced “minimal impact,” according to spokesman Blair Meeks. Six blocks south of the compromised main, Georgia Tech’s Coda building had consistent water access.
”(It has experienced) intermittent water pressure issues but never enough to send people home or close buildings or alter operations,” Meeks said. “No workarounds needed.”
Monday also saw some relief for residents when officials announced the boil water advisory was lifted for those affected by the other significant break at Joseph E. Boone Boulevard near J.P. Brawley Drive, where 48-inch and 36-inch transmission lines ruptured. Those steel pipes were more than 80 years old, according to Wiggins.
Credit: Arvin Temkar/AJC
Credit: Arvin Temkar/AJC
It was the first break to cause major water outages and low pressure for residents in a large swath of the city near downtown. Officials imposed a boil water advisory for people in those neighborhoods from Friday afternoon until about 7 p.m. Monday. Subsequent breaks created further outages and boil water advisories that remain in effect in the areas around the East Atlanta neighborhood and in the area of West Peachtree and 11th streets, according to a city statement.
Repairs on a large, centrally located water line are difficult, multi-step processes, and each step takes hours to complete. A major setback to watershed crews happened when their initial repairs to that critical Boone junction didn’t work and they were forced to restart.
The broken main on West Peachtree posed a different type of challenge because the water shut-off valve was directly underneath the geyser seen at street level, city officials said. Watershed officials made the call to let the break flow through the day Saturday to minimize service interruptions in the area.
Water was seen gushing from the break until early Monday. On Sunday morning, some onlookers jokingly referred to it as the “aqua apocalypse” or the “West Peachtree River.”
Other main breaks were later found and repaired at 4370 Minkslide Drive, 1190 Atlantic Drive and the intersection of Euclid and North avenues in northeast Atlanta. On Monday, crews investigated a potential break near Clayton Road and Armour Drive and shut off an 8-inch pipe at Fairlock Lane that supplied water to 20 homes and a fire hydrant. They also reported another interruption at 472 Gartrell Street, where four homes, three hydrants and an apartment complex lost water.
Credit: John Spink
Credit: John Spink
On Tuesday, officials said additional repairs were made at another address on Fairlock Lane that impacted the water service for 40 homes and businesses, as well as one hydrant. Emergency repairs were also made at 2256 Beecher Road, where water service was disrupted for 25 homes, one businesses and two hydrants.
On Monday, the city announced that Atlanta fire was providing one case of water per household at several of its stations. They are also distributing water Tuesday at West Peachtree and 10th Street, West Peachtree and 12th Street, and Peachtree Walk and 11th Street.
Credit: John Spink
Credit: John Spink
On Monday, Emory Hospital Midtown and Grady Memorial Hospital announced things were back to normal, along with Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport. Sports and entertainment events also went on Sunday after previous cancellations.
— Staff writers Kelly Yamanouchi, Rosie Manins and Zachary Hansen and AJC audio producer Natalie Mendenhall contributed to this article.
