Video Extra: City Workers Fix Water Main

It seems like water mains usually break at 2 a.m. in the depths of winter, city workers told Meriden Patch, so fixing in sunny August was comparatively smooth-sailing.

It was still a major all-day project, in which workers had to dig down through the asphalt on Murdock Ave. and more than 6 feet of earth to uncover the broken 12-inch cast iron pipe, pump water out from around it, replace the ruptured area, and fill it all back in.

We captured some footage of the process, mostly of workers replacing the 6-foot stretch of broken pipe. In the video you'll see some of the steps - workers sawing through the broken pipe, fitting the ends with cuffs to hold the new section, sawing the appropriate length of pipe from a replacement, guiding the new pipe down to the main, and finally affixing the new section to the pipe. Workers finished the project at around 5 p.m. Wednesday.