Millions of people live out entire months, years, and lives in the skyscraper canyons of cityscapes. This couldn’t work the way it does without all of the action happening behind the scenes from water delivery and waste removal to the stabilization devices that keep buildings standing tall. The more you find out about how a city works and the talented people who keep it running, the more fascinating it is.
A water main broke in southern Detroit, submerging cars and properties in water up to five feet deep. That water soon froze, creating a scene reminiscent of the film The Day After Tomorrow. Local Jb996 said:
I’m not surprised, but also kind of am.
“It took a couple of hours to find the valves that were covered in ice and snow to be able to isolate and shut off the water and identify exactly where the break was.”
Why isn’t there even a rough map of the system? At least to the main shutoff valves? Flooding in one area, shutoff all valves leading to that right away. “covered in snow” is a silly excuse. Obviously their procedure now is to drive around, look for something that looks like a water main valve, turn it off and see what happens. Then drive around looking for another…
This is like me living in a house for years and then saying: It took me a couple of hours to find the circuit breaker panel because of all of the furniture, shelving, and cabinets in the house.
Balloondoggle gave such a helpful answer:
Utility worker here, though not in Detroit. The maps are there, and they’re probably pretty good. However, no plan survives contact with reality. Transmission mains don’t have a lot of valves of their own, but there will be multiple places where a distribution main branches off from it. In order to shut down one segment of a transmission main you have to locate the shut off valves for every distribution main that connects to it. A good water system has lots of loops to prevent stagnant water in dead-end mains so you’re looking for a lot of valves. Then add in that many of them are now under water, under huge piles of snow from the plows, maybe under street furniture that was thoughtlessly placed over a manhole. Transmission main valves are huge and require mechanical assistance to turn, so once you find it and access it you have to get a vehicle positioned just right in order to hook up and turn that valve stem. Every valve is in a pit in the ground, so the closer you get to the break the more likely it is the valve chamber is full of water. Somehow that has to be drained so a person can access the valve and that’s another challenge when a 54″ pipe is pumping thousands of gallons per minute into your workspace.
From where I’m sitting, I’m impressed that they isolated that break in ONLY a few hours.
This weekend, we’re inviting you to see our horrible Nissan NV200 taxicab project car in North Carolina. You should totally stop by. But for now, A. Barth has some laughs:
*boots crunch in the gravel as the participants take their positions*
*a hawk screams in the middle distance*
*all stand motionless as a tumbleweed rolls through the scene*
“Hi, everyone! I’m Jason and this is David…”
Tbird:
Cue the Sergio Leone music score …
A. Barth:
Shower Spaghetti Western
Have a great evening, everyone!
(Topshot: Great Lakes Water Authority)
I worked on a water plant for many years. Mostly routine, but occasionally stuff like this would happen. Remember that water only moves when pushed with a pump. These can be steam powered (New Orleans) or electric. When the electric goes so goes water pressure. Now adays we have huge generators, but in the past I’d shut the plant down and light a candle while I waited.
Lucky it wasnt common ditch less likely with transmission but you see it now and again in older cites. Especially ones like Detroit where it was everything all at once quickly. It’s always fun when you are in a hole and it’s warm and you realize there is a tunnel under you. Happens more then you realize in alot of cities. Or cut though unmarked fiber line and the guys in black suits make a visit.
A thatsah biggah pipah !!!
I feel bad that my second mention into COTD is me foolishly assuming I know more than I do.
But hey, I prompted an interesting and informative response from Balloondoggle, so I guess I’m glad I could help!
Don’t worry, it’s pretty common in modern society to assume everyone, other than yourself, must have an instantaneous robotic recall of everything related to their field.
While you’re a “normal person” and are allowed 3 days to respond to an email regarding something you worked on 2 months ago.
It’s so easy to assume something should be easy when you don’t have the deep knowledge of how it works. I had the same initial reaction of “how could it take that long to shut off?” but hearing the details really wakes you up to the massive complexity of the world.
I agree, and my reply to Balloondoggle was a clear mea culpa and a thanks for the info!
100% get it dude!
Sounds like the system we thankfully replaced- No maps, brittle early plastic piping, half the shutoffs frozen, buried only 5 feet deep with shutoffs within wing plow range in Minnesota!
“Why isn’t there even a rough map of the system? At least to the main shutoff valves?”
It’s not that surprising. Even with something as simple as the toilets in our house, the water inlet shutoff knobs are behind and below the toilet, by the wall, near the floor. Exactly the last place you want them to be when the toilet’s overflowing.
But virtually every residential WC is set up that way. In commercial buildings, the flush valve shut off is at thigh level.
When I went to work for a sanitary district, the maps seemed oh so clear. When I couldn’t locate a MH in an old residential area w/ “child safe winding streets”, I was finally shown the MH… behind a fence/wall in the front yard of a house on the outside of the curve. People also put garden sheds over MH in easements in the back yard. Fun times.
For a moment I confused The Day After Tomorrow with The Day After and was desperately trying to figure out how a water main break could look like Steve Guttenberg with his hair and skin falling off.
The Day After was the LA fires, which did feature Mr Guttenberg.
The Day After was the early ’80s ABC TV movie about the aftermath of nuclear war, which also featured Mr Guttenberg.