CBS workers praised for quick work on major watermain break over holiday weekend

By Craig Westcott

Workers in the Town of Conception Bay South’s public works department got high praise at Tuesday’s public council meeting for having answered a late-night call on the Labour Day long weekend to grapple with a major watermain break at the bottom of the Foxtrap Access Road.

High pressure water from the rupture bore its way to the surface destroying dirt and pavement and causing a large hole at the intersection with Route 60 before thrusting forward in a high geyser of water that captured the attention of motorists and picture takers on social media. 

Emergency crews had to barricade the area to prevent traffic from falling into the hole and to allow emergency workers to get at the pipes to seal the break. The rupture happened about 9:30 p.m. Saturday, but was repaired and the road patched up by 4 a.m. the next day.

“I just want to say a big thank you (to the workers),” said Mayor Darrin Bent. “I know people will say, ‘Well, it’s what they do,’ but on a long weekend, on a Saturday night, into the middle of the night to come out and fix what looked like it was going to be a water main break for the ages, and which certainly gathered a lot of attention and onlookers as it shot into the air for quite a while, for the crews to come out, and I know they had some assistance from a private contractor they called in, and to get that not only shut off, contained, repaired, filled back in and on their way home at 4 a.m. is absolutely fantastic work. A big hat’s off to the people in our public works department and the people who assisted them to get that done. When people got up the next morning, they had their water, they could drive down Foxtrap Access Road no problem, and aside from a filled in gravel area in the road you wouldn’t have known it had happened.”

There was minimal private damage caused by the break, which is also fortunate, Bent pointed out.

“That fast action, I think, really means a lot to the people in the area, and of course it shows the professionalism that our workers exhibit when needed. So great on them,” Bent added.