Water main that burst last inspected 3½ years ago
‘Minor blemishes’ detected in major artery for the city
The last inspection on the pipe that sent water flowing over East Loop 610 and put most of the city on a boil water notice didn’t give officials anything to worry about.
It was 3½ years ago when the city last looked at the pipe, a major artery for the city’s water supply. The pipe’s valves were closed, and workers walked through the 8foot water main, searching for joint issues and other problems.
Inspectors found “minor stuff, minor blemishes,” said Jeff Weatherford, head of transportation and drainage operations for Houston Public Works. “Nothing that would indicate something like this.”
A contracted company was digging
about 3 feet above the pipe, searching for the leak, when it burst just before noon Thursday. The city has been on a boil water notice since Thursday evening — and will remain so until at least Saturday, Mayor Sylvester Turner said at a news conference. Missouri City is also on a boil notice.
“When you’re dealing with aging infrastructure, those possibilities always occur,” he said of the break. “That’s in every city.”
There were no injuries, Turner said, and no homes were flooded. The city is exploring the possibility of a disaster declaration to help businesses that had to stop operations Friday.
Houstonians can expect the boil notice to continue until at least 7 a.m., when water samples taken from 43 sites reach the state-mandated time of 18 hours to be tested for bacteria.
The city said it has no indication the water is contaminated and expects a positive result. Repairs on the pipe are expected to be completed Sunday, and officials hope it will resume carrying water on Tuesday.
‘Knew there was a leak’
Turner said that the leak comes with the territory: The pipe is 35 years old, and its lifespan will be about 50 years.
“Is it beyond its lifespan? No, but it’s not a brand-new pipe,” Weatherford said. “And you got to remember here as well we don’t exactly live in a place where it’s 70 degrees every day and mild rains.”
All the city knew before the pipe burst was that there was a leak, though the amount of water loss didn’t indicate it was particularly large. Neither the city nor the contract company realized how large the leak was or that the soil lying above the pipe was essentially containing it, Weatherford said.
The contractor searching it never even got to the water main before it ruptured.
“If we had realized, ‘Gee, there’s a chance of this happening,’ we would have isolated the pipe beforehand,” Weatherford said. “We just knew there was a leak.”
While the pipe had been inspected 3½ years ago, Weatherford couldn’t say whether that was a standard amount of time to go without an inspection. He said it hadn’t had any recent repairs done.
The Department of Public Works has not yet responded to questions about how often the pipe was previously inspected, the results of those inspections and what other contractors have dealt with the pipe.
Workers with the city contractor, Harper Brothers Construction, were shoveling about 3 feet above the 10-foot-deep pipe when it blew.
The City of Houston has paid Harper Brothers more than $99 million since 2016, including $11 million since the start of this year, according to data from the city website.
The data does not specify what projects Harper Brothers did. Max Moll, deputy director for the city controller’s office, said some previous contracts include water line improvements in other parts of the city.
“Safety is our top priority,” Dave Baldridge, the company spokesman, said in an email. “Our employees are highly experienced, and our civil construction and engineering protocols reflect the latest proven safety procedures.”
He did not answer any other questions.
The company was founded in 2014, according to co-founder Jon Harper’s LinkedIn profile.
David Hawes, the executive director of the Southwest Houston Redevelopment Authority, said the company has a good reputation and is known for its jobs on public works projects, from water and sewer lines to road construction. Hawes said he tries to get
Harper Brothers for all of the authority’s projects.
“They’re exceptional contractors. They do great work,” Hawes said. “They do it, they get it done quickly and they get it done under budget. My attitude on this is ‘these things happen.’ ”
The Southwest Houston Redevelopment Authority tapped Harper Brothers for a $20 million reconstruction of Fondren Road from Westpark Tollway to Interstate 69. That work was done from September 2015 to October 2016, according to the company’s site.
“They completely rebuilt Fondren,” Hawes said. “They got it done four months early and under budget.”
The water main break had closed all of Houston Independent
School District on Friday. Some single parents had to take the day off work to watch their children. Others scrambled to find child care. Health inspectors visited 400 restaurants Friday to ensure they were following the city’s guidance on the boil notice.
Hospitals impacted
The Texas Medical Center, which was significantly affected by the water break Thursday, was mostly back to business as usual Friday. Both MD Anderson Cancer Center and Baylor St. Luke’s Medical Center had postponed nonemergency work at their medical center campuses. Texas Children’s Hospital closed two facilities.
The institution still most impacted Friday was the Harris
Health System, which closed 35 of its clinics — including Smith Clinic.
Barbara Hess, 59, was shocked when she saw the clinic was closed, and she was at a loss for where to go next. She had driven from Katy on Friday afternoon to pick up her pain medication.
“Oh dear,” she said. “I mean, I guess if it gets bad enough, I’ll go to the ER.”
Transferring her prescription to a pharmacy out of Harris Health System wasn’t a possibility. It’s too expensive, she said.
“People with diabetes, high blood pressure — this is serious,” Hess said.
Like Hess, Juana Martinez, 42, pulled up to Smith to pick up meds; she said she had just one or two days of her epilepsy medication left.
“I think I’m going to have to go to a CVS, but it’s more expensive,” she said.
Hess finally called Harris Health and asked whether Lyndon B. Johnson Hospital’s pharmacy — about a 30-minute drive in rushhour traffic from the Smith Clinic — was closed.
She put up both thumbs with a sigh of relief.
“They’re open,” she said.