Photograph by Robert Scheer
San Jose Water Co. worker Nick Bernhardt assesses damage to the broken water main.
By Torre Peña
Gushing water from a ruptured water main early Friday morning caused heavy traffic delays at the intersection of Saratoga-Sunnyvale Road and Prospect Avenue.
The San Jose Water Co. shut off water to the 19-inch pipe at 9 a.m., leaving some businesses and residents without water until late in the evening.
The rupture was unusual considering the large size of the pipe, said Robert Day, the water company's customer service manager. But Day said the pipe was old.
"It was the original main in the area," Day said. "It was put in when this area was building up."
After maintenance crews excavated the main, an inspection revealed a corroded patchwork of holes riddling the 35-year-old cement-lined steel pipe.
"There was a weak spot at the point of the rupture," Day said.
People began calling the water company at about 3 a.m., describing water bubbling up through the street like a spring. By 6 a.m., 1,200 gallons of water per minute were spewing out into the intersection.
"It was flowing like a river," said Saratoga Deputy Sheriff Bob Gallardo, who was on the scene to witness asphalt buckle and mounds of dirt and gravel wash up on the sidewalk.
It took the water company three hours to shut down the water flow after an estimated 216,000 gallons delayed rush-hour traffic. Water backed up for a block along Saratoga-Sunnyvale Road, and at one point, the intersection was completely blocked, Gallardo said. The entrance to Highway 85 was also temporarily closed.
Day estimated that 80 commercial customers and a few residents were left without water while maintenance crews worked in sludge to repair the rupture. However, Dharminder Singh, an attendant at a gas station on the corner of the scene, said many customers from Cupertino and Saratoga living near the foothills to the west complained of having no water.
Throughout other parts of Saratoga, businesses and residents were also without water the same morning from about 5:30 a.m. to 10:30 a.m. A San Jose Water Company maintenance worker said the two incidents could be linked. Early dismissals were scheduled at Saratoga High School and several elementary schools because of a lack of water.
A leaking 25-inch water main on Oak Street near Saratoga-Los Gatos Road is to blame. Workers began fixing the main on Thursday, continuing on Friday.
"The leak on Oak Street started everything," Kevin Dickens, a maintenance crew leader, said. "It's all connected."
This article appeared in the Saratoga News, February 12, 1997.
©1997 Metro Publishing, Inc. All rights reserved.