Crews work 17 hours to fix water main break in Carterville Monday

CARTERVILLE, Ill. (KFVS) - Several straight days of below freezing weather is wreaking havoc on some cities water lines.

Crews in Carterville on Monday spent more than 17 hours trying to fix a water main break that happened on Pennsylvania Avenue between Barr Street and Prentice Avenue.

Mayor Brad Robinson said the leak began around 6 a.m. Monday morning. By 1:30 p.m. the entire community was impacted.

Robinson says the normal volume of water that the city receives from Rend Lake is not sufficient to meet the minute-by-minute demand. He said the leak amplified that even more, forcing the city to shut off the water supply.

Robinson says the city will receive a 40 year loan for $4.5 Million dollars at a 1.5% interest to add another ground storage tank and 2 new water towers. He says that will almost triple the city’s water supply.

That addition will start in 2023.

Robinson says an aging infrastructure contributed to the leak.

“It was a sand cast line and it was in a part of town that’s one of the older parts of the original Carterville, so I would assume that that line was put in possibly in the WPS days, so that line could of been put in the 1930′s,” said Robinson.

Robinson says the water and sewer board meets in January to discuss plans to replace the section that caused the leak, to discuss plans to replace that section of water lines.

Robinson also told me that the city is still under a boil order until further notice. He tells me the samples were taken to the lab this morning, and this time tomorrow, we’ll learn if the order can be lifted.

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