For Erie Water Works crews it’s been a non-stop stretch of responding to water main breaks. “We had 18 failures over the weekend,” said Erie Water Works CEO Craig Palmer, “and so our men have been working very diligently and tirelessly to get people back in water service as quickly as possible.”
Sustained frigid temperatures have force the frost level three and a half feet deep into the ground. “So we’ve had an uptick in water main breaks, we’re already at 40 in February alone – which is certainly tracking very high for what a normal February would be,” Palmer added.
Two of the weekend water main breaks are just east of the Mercyhurst University campus on Briggs Avenue near 38th Street, and farther south at 43rd Street, leaving students in both the Briggs and Duval Apartments without water for a couple of days…