Problem happens like this.

1. Water Main breaks and starts to wash away under the street, moving gravel and sand.

2. Water pressure drops and Fire is dispatched as sprinker systems go in to low water levels and set off alarms.

3. If the hole is full of water, and there is water on the street, there is no way to tell how deep it is, as the driver (Engineer), you just assume there is a street under the water no some great hole.

We had a series of really bad thunderstorms one summer and it took me an hour to go what should take 10 minutes due to the storm sewers backing up and flooding the streets. I got s*** for being too careful, but, I didn't want to strand the truck in 4 feet of water. Ended up driving out in the country and back in a circle.

We have underground steam for heating and airconditioning in the downtown core. Looks like Gotham City at times. A water main breaks and the water cuts the insulation off the superheated steam pipe and of course 1 cu ft of H20 = 1200 cu ft of steam so that gets trapped under the street and finds conduits into buildings. Since I've retired I have helped a restoration company 3 times with big projects where we needed generators to run buildings for day while things get fixed. Bad infrastructure everywhere man, 80 year old watermains with lead joints....hmm.....

John Conley
Musica est vita