Sewer line breaks on Foothills street
A sewer main break reported around 10:30 a.m. Monday brought repair and cleanup crews to 40th Street just east of Fortuna Road, while the road remained open to traffic throughout the day.
The Far West Water and Sewer Co. force main was punctured while a contractor for cable provider Spectrum was conducting directional boring under 40th between Mesa and Tucson drives, company manager Andy Capestro and Yuma County spokesman Kevin Tunell said.
Capestro said that repairs to the line were completed at about 6:30 p.m., and that no one lost water or sewer service as a result of the break.
Some effluent leaked onto the street after the break, but stopped when Far West crews were able to shut off the main line above and below it, Capestro said. The company brought out a tanker truck and vacuum truck, plus a backhoe to reach the line and repair it.
Traffic on 40th Street was routed around the worksite.
A spokesman for Spectrum confirmed Monday that a contractor had been laying new cable in the street Monday, and the sewer line was reportedly unmarked.
Capestro said that Far West employees had been on the scene to show the contractor where the sewer lines were when the contractor drove a pipe through the sewer main.
“They said they thought they were going to miss it and drove right into the dad-gone thing,” he said.
Spectrum, its contractor and Far West will be responsible for repairing the roadway where it had to be dug up for the repairs, Tunell said: “They will fix it and they will pay for it.” A county inspector is overseeing the repair work, he added.
He said it’s possible the road could be partially shut down today, depending on the extent of damage to it.