OLD INFRASTRUCTURE
Major water main valve break interrupts service for over one-third residents in Cohoes for part of the day Friday
COHOES, N.Y. >> City officials dealt with a major water main valve that broke in the area of 6 Berkley Ave. on Friday morning.
Officials said the break interrupted water service to all residents in the entire mid water system. Over 2,500 households were affected during the day.
The areas included Vliet Blvd at Pleasant Street down to North Mohawk Street and all areas north of this line. Columbia Street from Central Ave to Conliss Avenue and all areas between.
Officials noted that residents in the immediate area had little to no water pressure until the break was fixed. As of around 3:30 p.m. Friday, officials said that water was back on and that they still advise residents in the affected area to boil their water for 48 hours.
A boil water is in effect for the areas compromised by the break for at least 48 hours. All residents and property owners that have experienced water outages and/or low water pressures are advised to boil all water prior to use or use bottled water for drinking, cooking or brushing teeth, according to city officials.
City officials also announced that Abram Lansing Elementary and Cohoes Middle School closed early Friday due to having no water service.
Mayor Shawn Morse said that it was a 16-inch main that had a broken valve on a 109-year- old pipe. Morse said they probably lost around 400,000 or more gallons of water due to the break.
“It’s a pretty old pipe running through our city like much of our infrastructure,” said Morse. “This break will give us an opportunity to now fix this area, and we’re looking now to add another shut-off so that if any water breaks happen in this area again, we have another opportunity to shut the water off and not affect this many families. That could be upwards of $30,000 to $40,000 to add another valve in that area.”
“The city has old infrastructure like every city,” added Morse, while pleading for state officials to help secure funding to up-
grade infrastructure around the Capital Region.” We are struggling like every city; we’re talking hundreds of millions of dollars to replace infrastructure.”
The system where the break occurred affected over one-third of Cohoes residents. “There’s a lot of people that are going to be without water,” said Morse during a news conference Friday morning.
“This is perhaps the biggest water issue that we faced in my time as the Mayor,” added Morse, while noting that it could cost upwards of $100,000 to fix the break.
Morse said crews from DPW worked hard and was able to temporarily fix the break after a few hours.
“They replaced the valve
that broke, we still need one additional valve, so that when you’re turning the water off in that area, it’s isolated to a smaller area rather than 3,000 households,” said Morse. “We will be talking about that in the coming weeks, but the reality is that we’re not going to be able to do that until it’s a little warmer out and we’ll probably have to go out to bid on one of those types of jobs.”
Morse said the pressure of the water and the cold blacktop buckled up the road and said it will be a bumpy ride for residents on that street.
“As soon as the warm weather comes, that will be one of our first streets that we’re going to have to do a complete overhaul on
that section,” said Morse, while noting how DPW had to use heated up cold-patch to pound into the pavement and some of the holes for a temporary fix.
Morse was appreciative to the DPW crew and to residents for having patience during the process on Friday.
“I think our DPW is topnotch,” said Morse. “Most people who were working during the day [on Friday] are going to come home, and they’re just going to have a notice to boil their water [for 48 hours] instead of dealing with the inconvenience of not having any water. I had more people calling me up complimenting the work that we did and the understanding of living in the cold weather in the Northeast.”