City opts to take ruptured water main out of service, saves money

Water coming up through asphalt is not usually considered a good thing.  And after discovering a leak in a water main at the intersection of U.S. 441 and County Road 235, the City of Alachua Public Services Department confirmed it could cost up to $50,000 to repair.

On Monday morning, the Public Services Department received the first reports of water coming up through the asphalt.

Public Services Director Mike New said that after investigating the situation, the cost of repairing the pipeline would far exceed the cost of abandoning it altogether.

“To repair it, we would have to be in the state road digging, so I imagine those repair costs would push to $40,000 to $50,000,” New said. “If the repair was straightforward and easy, we would have repaired it, but it appeared as though it was going to be significant and expensive.”

Since the Florida Department of Transportation requires all abandoned and empty pipelines to be filled with grout or cement, public services will only have to deal with the process of filling up the main.

New said he hasn’t done a detailed estimate of the cost but believes the price of abandoning the pipe would cost somewhere between $10,000 and $15,000.

He said the six-inch water main running along the west side of State Road 235 won’t be missed once removed.

“In this case, given the age of the pipes and the cost of repair, it is better for city to just abandon this one interconnecting point,” New said. “It won’t affect the system hydraulics or any customers.

The pipe is more than 40 years old and the decision to remove it saves the city from the high cost of repair.