The homeowner of a single family residence on Henry St in Manhattan, was alarmed after noticing a stream of water coming from his foundation wall. His natural inclination was to contact his plumber and fix the leaking pipe inside his house.
Water main leak at foundation wall
The internal plumber informed the homeowner that the leak was not from a pipe inside his house, and that he should contact DEP to check his pipe on the outside of the house. After four hours the DEP arrived and performed a noise test on the homeowner’s water line. The result was negative as the pipe was completely silent, the DEP field representative did not hear any noise on the pipe.
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sonoscope (listening device) |
Listening for water leak |
He then checked the neighbor’s water line which had a loud rumbling noise on the pipe, this was a strong indication that the lead water pipe had a break in the street, and had to be replaced. The owner was issued a 3 day notice to repair the pipe.
Harris Water began excavating for the water leak within 24 hours. The installation team first began by marking out the location they would dig over the city water main, and the location they would dig on the public sidewalk.
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Roadway mark out |
Sidewalk mark out |
They now started digging in the street on top of the city main where they would close the tap connection, which would stop the leaking main. Once they reached the city main, the crew became aware that this was the exact location of the leak and had to fight the water before turning of the connection.
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Fighting the water leak in roadway |
Making tunnels for new pipe |
The hole on the sidewalk was now dug before tunnels were made for the pipe to be installed. The total length of pipe to be installed was 30’ which allowed the pipe to be installed with two holes.
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Another successful job! |
The new copper pipe |
Once the pipe was installed, the roadway and sidewalk were left with temporary asphalt before the paving crew could permanently restore the next day.
