46 replies to this topic

[HB]

A watermain I just broke on Cook at Pandora huge amounts of water flooding down at Yates and Cook
This is on a pip that was just realigned 1 year ago
Traffic snarled bad

[HB]

That was a typo I didn't break it
Massive amount of water sidewalks shut down east side of cook pandora to yates
City got I shut down within 15 minutes from what remember its a 20" main there and the city contracted the job to Insituform I suppose the city will want some compensation on this

[HB]

Had a close up look at it . Looks to me like the hydrant was not properly installed and it blew off the main below grade ill post photos and videos later

[sebberry]

Interesting. Any businesses affected there?

[HB]

It was sketchy for the hair salon on the corner of Johnson and cook and the parking lot next door was filling up by the laundry place
I can't post the pictures and videos until tommorrow now but if you watch chek news at 5 you'll see it there

[Bingo]

Had a close up look at it . Looks to me like the hydrant was not properly installed and it blew off the main below grade ill post photos and videos later

They have people in Oak Bay that have experience with this stuff.

[HB]

When looking at the fire hydrant where the cfange connects to the supply pipe I see that the blue coloured nuts marked by the white arrows are still in place. There are 4 but only 2 are visible in this shot. From what I remember those nuts are supposed to be tightened until they break off. they are meant to do this. As the nuts are tightened some teeth indicated by the red arrows bite into the pipe or supply line which in trun locks the flange and pipe together. It seems that this was not done in this case and over time water leaking eroded the back fill and as there was room for more movement of the hydrant it finally blew the hydrant off of and away from the supply line and thats what happened today.
I iwll also note that I am not an engineer and am not saying for certain that this is what happened but from what I see that is what I am guessing . I am also not saying that any one person or company was responsible for this . Only my personal observations.






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[sebberry]

Good photos, thanks for that!

[D.L.]

that does it. im not bothering to conserve water this year

[Baro]

Maybe they should call oak bay and ask how to deal with this sort of situation

[Linear Thinker]

When looking at the fire hydrant where the cfange connects to the supply pipe I see that the blue coloured nuts marked by the white arrows are still in place. There are 4 but only 2 are visible in this shot. From what I remember those nuts are supposed to be tightened until they break off. they are meant to do this. As the nuts are tightened some teeth indicated by the red arrows bite into the pipe or supply line which in trun locks the flange and pipe together.

You nailed it !

See this install video for MEGALUG pipe restraints.

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[HB]

Hey awesome find with the video.
We should work as consultants on water works projects for the city which are farmed out to contractors.
Except there is no money for that heard its all going to some bridge they are building somewhere.

[sebberry]

History Buff, was that your dashcam vid on CHEK?

[Linear Thinker]

Hey awesome find with the video.
We should work as consultants on water works projects for the city which are farmed out to contractors.
Except there is no money for that heard its all going to some bridge they are building somewhere.

Full disclosure, I do work for the City Eng. Dept, but I don't deal with water/sewer/drain too often in my work.

[HB]

History Buff, was that your dashcam vid on CHEK?

Yes it was but I wont be able to post it here until tommorrow due to an agreement .Ill post the whole tommorrow

[sebberry]

How much do they pay for clips?

[HB]

I have had a freelance agreement with some BC media outlets (print and Television) for a number of years now. This was after I filmed something that made the news across the country. Not paid for asignments but can make money occasionally on what is known as spot news.
Not possible to get rich but it does pay for fuel and time and maybe a $5 footlong.
On the other hand if you are able to document something that could make the news across teh country youll be doing OK.
If you are able to get something that would make it to CNN as a headline then your in the money but you have to think fast and know who to call and how to negotiate.

[Sparky]

HB, I wonder if your pic with the nuts not tightened properly will end up in court one day. Someone was negligent and that must have cost a few bucks to clean it up, and even more to put it back together. I hope the taxpayers don't have to foot the bill.

There was a spokes person on the news last night that tried to brush it off by saying a car could have hit the hydrant some time ago and it took a while to give way.

Yeah right.

[Bingo]

What is going on with these water main breaks involving fire hydrants?

This incident sounds similar to the water main break and flooded basements in Oak Bay last November.

If this is part of the aging underground infrastructure that is going to be vulnerable in an earthquake, then we need to include hip waders in our earthquake kit.

[aastra]

It helps keep the dust down after an earthquake.