AUBURN — A sub-surface water main leak under New Auburn’s Fifth Street-Broad Street intersection kept the road closed for most of the day Tuesday.
Auburn Water District Superintendent John Storer said his crews had finished repairing an old water main valve and a section of the main by 6 p.m. Tuesday.
He said they’d be back Wednesday morning to finish repair work to the asphalt pavement.
A handful of New Auburn homes remained under a boil order until 24 hours after the repairs had been completed.
“The boil water notification is a very conservative safety precaution and will remain in effect until we get a satisfactory lab result that indicates the water is safe,” Storer said in an email. “It takes 24 hours to run a standard bacteria test — so if everything checks out OK the boil water order will be removed (Wednesday) afternoon.”
Storer said crews also delivered jugs of bottled water to residents that had lost their water.
Storer said the crews noted a drop in water pressure about 2:30 a.m. Tuesday. That was followed by four calls from New Auburn residents complaining that they had no water service.
“When you put two and two together, it’s pretty clear we had a water main break,” Storer said Tuesday morning. “So we dispatched the crews and they’ve been driving around all morning looking for water coming out of the ground. So we started using listening devices to narrow it down.”
The main was leaking directly into a storm sewer, he said.
District Engineer Sid Hazelton said police detoured traffic around the intersection during the work, closing Broad Street between Sixth Avenue and South Main Street and Fifth Avenue between South Main and Pulsifer Streets.
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