Cracked water main creates underground gusher

The Daily Inter Lake

A 14-inch water main near Lowe's Home Center fell victim to spring frost heave early Thursday, spilling thousands and thousands of gallons of water before Kalispell Public Works employees could locate the break and shut down the line.

City police dispatchers logged their first call at 4:12 a.m., when Costco reported there was no water service to the building. Dispatch paged out the Water Department to track down the problem.

Starbuck's called next, at 5:36 p.m., to report alarming dryness. The Water Department worker was trying to find the leak, police learned.

Finally, a leak sprung up but not where it was wanted - at Centre Court Manor, reported at 5:43 a.m.

Soon the break was pinpointed to Tree Line Road, northwest of Lowe's where the new Holiday Inn Express is being built.

Frank Castles, deputy Public Works director/assistant city engineer, said the water main had been buried three years ago, at about the time when construction of the new box stores was under way there.

Water was shut off to two new construction sites, Glacier High School and Holiday Inn Express, and Water Department employees put in a new concrete reaction box to replace the broken section.

Castles expected water service to resume to the sites by this morning, after the cement had set.

At 60 pounds per square inch, the water was gushing enough to drop 10,000 gallons a minute from the city reservoir, the Police Department said.