Press release from the City of Fort Wayne:
Water Main Break Closes Taylor
Taylor Street between Fairfield Avenue and Broadway Avenue is closed today due to a water main break. Motorists should use the detour route of Fairfield to Creighton to Broadway. Taylor will be open to local traffic only.
The broken pipe is a 6″ cast iron pipe that is over 100-years-old. Gushing water from the pipe has washed away dirt under the road and caused a portion of Taylor to cave-in just east of Broadway Avenue. A 72″ brick sewer pipe dating back to the early 1900’s has also been damaged by the rushing water.
City Utilities has 1,150 miles of water main pipe. Currently we replace about 6 miles of older water main pipe each year. As the system ages and the percentage of pipes over 100 years old continues to grow, City Utilities is hoping to double that amount in the coming years, a difficult task with a tight budget that must cover rising costs of chemicals, electricity and federal unfunded mandates for water treatment.
At this time we do not know how long the repair will take. We will update you later today.
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