The alarms went off on December 18, 2018. There was a leak in the Warwick water system, not just a dipping faucet or a broken fire hydrant spilling hundreds of gallons into the street. This was much bigger, a ruptured line large enough to wash out roads and the foundations of buildings.

One would think finding such a water main break would be easy, but it wasn’t. It was dark and there were no reports of a geyser gushing from beneath the pavement.  In fact, it wasn’t until a pond was spotted where it shouldn’t be between the on and off ramps to Route 95 and Route 37. By the time the water division was able to shut off the 30 inch pipe, an estimated 15 million gallons,  3 million gallons more than contained in the system’s giant Bald Hill Road tanks, had pooled threatening to wash across Route 95.

That was just the start of problems.

The pipe beneath Routes 95 and 37 is a direct feed from Providence Water Supply the city’s primary supplier. Without it the northern end of the city including the airport would be virtually dry while the rest of the city would experience a dramatic decline in pressure impairing everything from taking a shower to fighting fires. This was a crisis of a dimension that neither division director Daniel O’Rourke, now retired, nor Terry DiPetrillo, who is now the director, had encountered.

 There weren’t a lot of options. Digging up Route 95 would disrupt traffic and take days to accomplish the most rudimentary of repairs.  Opening a smaller connection to the Providence system that runs under the Pawtuxet River in the vicinity of Elmwood Avenue could offer some relief but nowhere meet the demand especially in the summer months.

Fortunately, although it wasn’t immediately realized, those who built the aqueduct, knowing  the interstate highway system was coming , built a bypass  parallel  to the primary line . No one knew whether it would hwold up or rupture like its companion.

A good thing in an otherwise bad scenario, the rupture occurred within a hundred feet of the highway, but not beneath either Route 95 or 37. This allowed for the division to unearth the pipe, cut it and later send cameras down its length to assess its condition.  On the night of the rupture the immediate goal was to restore water and either the pipe had to be patched or the bypass used. The bypass has also been examined by camera to assess its integrity. It is ductile pipe that is lighter than its cast iron sister that studies since the break show was weakened by graphitization corrosion and likely failed because of a “water hammer” or abrupt change in pressure the way water will sometimes spurt out of a faucet.  

The bypass valve requiring scores of turns was opened and water was restored.

Thankfully, the bypass continues to work. And fingers crossed it will continue to do so for at least another two years.

On Thursday DiPetrillo and his son, Mark DiPetrillo senior foreman with the division, gave the mayor the news that the state Departments of Environmental Management and Transportation have signed off on plans drafted by StanTec at a cost of $150,000 to upgrade both the primary feed line and the bypass. The project is to be completed in two stages with the first being restoration of the ruptured line with a combination of slip lining the existing pipe under the highways and open trench replacement where possible. The slip lining is to be accomplished by inserting a pipe within the existing pipe.  When the primary is finished, it will be reopened and the process of slip lining  those sections under the highway and open trench replacement of the bypass will begin. Projections have the primary completed and back in service by November 2024 and the renovated bypass by December 2025. The cost of the entire project is estimated at $3.6 million.

Although the precarious position of depending on the bypass was reported by the Beacon on more than one occasion, nothing was done.

Infrastructure showing its age

Until he assumed office, Mayor Picozzi said he did not understand the seriousness of the situation until briefed by DiPetrillo. He instructed DiPetrillo not to waste time and to come up with a plan. He also said City Finance Director Peder Schaefer looked into the division’s fund for maintenance and replacement, discovering it had about $7 million. That surely appeared to be adequate funding to repair the pipe, but at about the some time the division was advised to take one of the Bald Hill storage tanks offline after inspections revealed what appeared as cracks in the concrete structure. The city’s water infrastructure was showing its age including the need to replace lead service lines that can be found in older neighborhoods including Norwood, Lakewood and Pawtuxet.  The division has identified 227 lead service lines – the pipe leading from the in-road pipe to a building  - that it intends to replace at a projected cost of $2.5 million.

Initially engineers called for the replacement of the two Bald Hill tanks at a projected cost of $15 million. DiPetrillo reached out to the company that installed the tanks more than 40 years ago. They had a plan to refurbish the existing tanks to give them at least an additional 25 years of service. That project including the relining of the interior of the tanks was recently completed at a cost of $2.1 million.

A combination of division funds and  federal APRA funds will be to pay for the work.

DiPetrillo said specifications for the connecting pipe to Providence Water would be going out for bid within the month.