Age delays water main repairs
on Roosevelt Avenue in Grants

Edward Salazar of OMI clears out tons of dirt Monday allowing axcess to the corroded pipes under Roosevelt Avenue in Grants. (Photo by Jerry Wilson/Independent)

By Tom Purdom
Staff Writer

GRANTS — The one thing Assistant City Engineer John Rhoderick said could hold up the water-main repair project on Roosevelt Avenue two weeks ago is still holding it up
today.

On Dec. 23, the 18-inch water main from the water tower ruptured under Roosevelt Avenue. At the time, Rhoderick said the only problem in fixing the rupture would be finding the parts to fix it. The water line is 50 years old and parts are not be readily available.

He was right.

"We've had to custom order the parts," Rhoderick said. "They should be getting here any day now."

By custom ordering, he meant the parts had to be custom made by fabricators, which can take time.

When the water main broke Dec. 23, crews had to dig a trench across Roosevelt Street to get to the leaking
line. The crews were from Operations Management International Inc. (OMI), which contracts with the city
of Grants to take care of the city's water and sewer system including transmission lines, as well as the city
parks.

The break caused about an eight to 10-hour water outage for some customers north of Grants High
School.

Motorists are required to use alternate routes rather than going up Roosevelt Avenue because the decision was made to leave the trench open and blockade Roosevelt Avenue with yellow caution tape to keep cars from ending up in the ditch.When the parts come in, crews will fix the line, close the trench back up, repair the street and open
Roosevelt Avenue back up again. Rhoderick said the repair work should not take long when the parts arrive in Grants.

What's more, OMI has been doing some preliminary work; so, when the parts arrive, area water customers will not have to experience a shutdown period while the repairs
are being done, Rhoderick said.