The unexpected occurred early Tuesday morning, the owner of a single family residence in Queens noticed a stream of water in front of his house. He first thought it was the previous day’s snow melting, and thought nothing of the water. He continued to watch the water seeping through the sidewalk and was surprised as it continued to intensify.
Like many homeowners, he contacted DEP to fix the burst pipe. It is a common misconception that NYC will repair a broken water main when leaking on the sidewalk. The homeowner is actually responsible for the entire water main, from the house, to the city water main in the roadway. DEP issued the owner a 3 day notice to get the pipe replaced.
At this point the owner assumed responsibility and scheduled the work to begin the very next morning. The leaking water was now creating a dangerous situation; the water started to freeze and formed large amounts of ice for all of the neighbors.
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 Harris opens the roadway |
The water line replacement was straight forward; the city water main was on the same side of the street as the house. This is called “short water” in the plumbing world, and keeps the overall cost down as there is only twenty five feet of pipe to install.
The roadway was opened with a jackhammer and the tap connection was closed (The tap connection is the valve that connects the private water line, to the city main). Now that the water leak has stopped, the crew was able to blow one long underground tunnel, from the street, to inside the house. The new copper pipe was inserted through the tunnel and the homeowner had a fully functional water line after six hours of work.
 The new pipe is installed |
 And connected to the city water main |
