(Updated at 9:30 p.m.) A large swath of South Arlington is experiencing low or no water pressure due to “several” water main breaks.
One major break happened on S. Dinwiddie Street, near the Arlington Mill Community Center, Monday evening.
As of 7 p.m., water was gushing from a buckle in the road, sending a torrent of water through an apartment parking lot and down to S. Arlington Mill Road below, where it was pooling, just above Four Mile Run. Tow crews, meanwhile, were moving cars from the side of Dinwiddie Street to give water crews room to work.
Police have closed a portion of Dinwiddie Street between Columbia Pike and 8th Road S. The community center closed just after 7:20 p.m. due to the water main break.
Residents of the Fairlington, Barcroft, Nauck and Columbia Forest neighborhoods have all been reporting widespread water pressure issues.
Officials say there are several water main breaks along the Columbia Pike corridor being attended to by county crews. An Arlington Dept. of Environmental Services sent ARLnow.com the following statement just after 7:30 p.m.
We learned within the past hour of several water main breaks in the Columbia Pike corridor and we’re receiving reports of low water pressure in portions of South Arlington. Crews have been dispatched and are working to fix the issue. Due to high call volume, our 24-hour emergency line, 703-228-6555, is down. At this time, I don’t have an estimated completion time or the number of impacted residents.
As of 8:30 p.m., water pressure had returned to near-normal in at least some areas.
Lady Warriors Fall in States — The Wakefield Lady Warriors received a police escort as the team left for the state basketball tournament in Hampton on Wednesday. The team lost to three-time defending state champs Princess Anne by a score of 51-42 yesterday. [Twitter, Virginian-Pilot, Twitter]
APS Statement Affirms Welcoming Environment — Following accusations of discrimination and bullying at Yorktown High School, Arlington Public Schools Superintendent Dr. Patrick Murphy has released a statement affirming the school system’s commitment to “a welcoming, safe and caring learning environment for each and every student.” Wrote Murphy: “The hallmark of our work is that ALL students should experience freedom from harassment, judgement or prejudice.” [Arlington Public Schools]
New SafeTrack Surge Starts Tomorrow — Metro will begin a new round of “SafeTrack” maintenance work on Saturday. The work will affect riders along the Blue and Yellow lines. [ARLnow, WMATA]
Don’t Forget to Prune Shrubs and Trees — “It’s the ideal time of the season to use your pruning tools to improve the health and growing habits of your woody plants. The effort will make your gardening easier later in the year.” [Arlington County]
Water Main Break Affects DCA Traffic — A water main break closed an access ramp to Reagan National Airport from the southbound GW Parkway this morning. [Fox 5]
Arlington County crews are working to repair a water main break along a busy stretch of road in Rosslyn.
The rupture was discovered in a 12-inch main around 10 a.m. this morning, according to Arlington Dept. of Environmental Services spokeswoman Katie O’Brien. The nearby Hyatt hotel and 20-50 residents are impacted by the water main break, she said.
Repairs are expected to wrap up during the evening rush hour, perhaps around 6 p.m. Drivers should expect traffic impacts along the 1300 block of Wilson Blvd.
Currently, only one lane of eastbound Wilson Blvd is getting by the repairs, while the westbound turn lane at Nash Street is also blocked.
Emergency water main repairs at 1300 Wilson Blvd. Expected completion time 6pm, barring complications. Expect traffic delays. #VATrafficpic.twitter.com/Iac5P9upfU
Dogs Die in Seven Corners Fire — Two dogs perished in a Sunday morning house fire in the Seven Corners area, although three dogs and four people were able to make it out of the burning home okay. Arlington County firefighters responded to the scene, assisting Fairfax County units in battling the blaze. [Fairfax County Fire and Rescue]
Water Main Break in Fairlington — Parts of north Fairlington had low or no water pressure for most of the day Monday due to a water main break. [Twitter]
Remembering Obama’s Local Bookstore Visit — Even four years later, not a day goes by when One More Page Books owner Eileen McGervey doesn’t hear from someone about the time in 2012 when President Obama visited her store on Small Business Saturday. She recounted how it happened recently on a local public radio show. [WAMU]
Carpool Still Hanging On — Once believed to be closing this fall to make way for a redevelopment, popular Ballston bar Carpool is now likely to remain open through March 2017, co-owner Mark Handwerger tells ARLnow.com. The Washington Business Journal reported last month that the redevelopment has hit a bit of a snag.
Yorktown Senior Joins Chamber — Mark Yates, Jr., a senior at Yorktown High School and the founder of a lawn care business, has joined the Arlington Chamber of Commerce as a member after participating in the Chamber’s Young Entrepreneurs Academy. [Arlington Chamber]
Jonathan Kinney Honored — Prominent local attorney Jonathan Kinney was honored by the Arlington Community Foundation earlier this month, in front of a record luncheon crowd of nearly 400. Despite his low-key demeanor, Kinney, a land use and estate planning attorney, was described as “Arlington’s most indispensable citizen.” [InsideNova]
Water main break in Highland Park-Overlee Knolls (photo by Mark Hand)
Water main break in Highland Park-Overlee Knolls (photo by Mark Hand)
Water main break in Highland Park-Overlee Knolls (photo by Mark Hand)
A majority of construction-caused natural gas line ruptures in Arlington occur despite excavators calling Miss Utility to locate underground utility systems prior to digging, according to the latest figures.
For fiscal year 2015, Washington Gas, the local gas utility that serves Arlington, reported 48 incidents of damage to its gas distribution system in the county. Of these incidents, 73% were caused by excavators, and, of those, 63% occurred despite the contractors calling Virginia 811, the state’s Miss Utility call center, prior to excavation, the utility said.
As recently as late July, a gas leak was reported on S. Fillmore Street in an Arlington neighborhood with a mixture of single family homes, duplexes and apartment complexes. Four blocks were shut down after the gas began to leak out. Reports suggested a construction crew working on the sidewalks ruptured a 3/4-inch gas line.
Digging damage to other underground utility systems like water mains and fiber optic cables also are common, though statistics on those incidents were not immediately available. Because of the combustibility of natural gas, utilities are required by the state of Virginia to keep records on gas line ruptures.
(ARLnow.com has reported on dozens of excavation-related water main breaks and gas leaks over the past 6.5 years.)
Employees with Arlington County’s water and utilities division ruptured a water main on Aug. 30 as they were doing excavation work on a residential street to connect a new water pipe to a house undergoing major renovations, causing an eight-hour water outage in the Highland Park-Overlee Knolls neighborhood.
The rupture occurred even though surveyors had come to the 22nd Street N. site prior to the excavation work to spray paint yellow, blue and other colors marking where underground utility systems were located.
The markings showing the location of the underground water main that serves a portion of the neighborhood were not accurate, according to county workers at the scene. The colors indicating the existence of an underground water line appeared to be at least three feet from where the water main was actually located.
Frustrated by the water main rupture, the workers complained that the mapping of underground utility systems is routinely inaccurate. Arlington County uses a contractor, Double H. Locates LLC, for locating and marking of the county’s water mains, sanitary sewers, storm sewers and county fiber optic lines prior to excatvation. For natural gas lines, Washington Gas contracts with UtiliQuest. Double H. Locates did not return calls for comment about the water main rupture.
“Most of the time our markings are accurate, but occasionally there are errors,” Arlington County Chief Support Engineer Dave Hundelt said about the water main damage. “We need more time to investigate this particular instance, but if we hit a utility that was marked, mismarked or unmarked we report it to that utility company and work with them to coordinate repairs to our respective utilities to get customers back in service as soon as possible.”
The science of locating underground utility systems using remote-sensing instruments and maps provided by utilities remains very challenging, even for the best firms, according to Michael Maguire, president of Accurate Infrastructure Data Inc., a Baltimore-based company that provides underground utility investigation, subsurface utility engineering, surveying and mapping services.
These locator companies recognize their work is not foolproof.
“The underground is a complex environment,” Maguire said. “The congestion of underground utilities or the weakness of the conductor that represents the underground utility line can lead to less-than-fully accurate locations. Even under the best of circumstances, with the most diligent practitioners in the field, you can get misled. You can get fooled and end up with a location that’s not a correct depiction of where the utility actually exists. There are those practitioners who are perhaps less careful.”
Excavators are reminded constantly to call Miss Utility before digging. The call center will notify utility companies when excavation work is proposed in the vicinity of their utility system and then each utility has the responsibility to send out surveyors to locate and mark the utilities on the ground.
Arlington County is a member of Virginia 811, a not-for-profit organization created by Virginia’s utilities. Virginia 811 has more than 600 utility members, as large as Verizon and Dominion Virginia Power and as small as water utility systems with only 20 or 30 customers.
Update at 5 p.m. — Repairs are behind schedule but are still expected to be complete by the end of the day, a county spokeswoman said.
“The depth of the water main has made this a more complicated repair and weather is also slowing us down,” said Jessica Baxter. “The estimated completion is now midnight tonight. We’ll continue to monitor progress and communicate any updates.”
Update at 1:55 p.m. — The office building at 2001 Jefferson Davis Highway is affected too, the county has confirmed.
A water main break has closed a road and at least one building in Crystal City.
Crews are currently working to repair the 12-inch water main, which broke last night. Arlington’s Dept. of Environmental Services says an office building and an apartment building are affected; ARLnow.com has heard reports of other buildings without water in the area.
“Buildings 2111 and 2221 S. Clark Street are currently impacted,” said DES spokeswoman Jessica Baxter. “Repairs will continue through the day and the estimated time of completion is 6 p.m., barring complications. South Clark Street is closed between 20th and 23rd Street, however, Jefferson Davis Highway remains open and traffic is flowing.”
Last night co-working space WeWork, which is located at 2221 S. Clark Street, told customers in an email that the building would be closed today.
A water main break is affecting people citywide this evening in Crystal City. This affects our water and HVAC and we are closing the building tomorrow until water has been restored. We will communicate with you as soon as we hear from the city.
In the meantime, you are welcome to work out of any other DC WeWork location. Please reach out to the Crystal City team with any questions. Thank you for your patience and support as we work to rectify this situation.
This week is National Public Works Week, and to mark the occasion Arlington County has released some crazy stats from its public works division, the Dept. of Environmental Services.
Here’s what the county says DES has done over the past year:
“Collected some 34,000 tons of trash and another 31,000 tons of recycling curbside”
“Carried more than 2.8 million passengers on Arlington Transit (ART) bus trips”
“Paved 92 of the County’s 974 lane miles”
“Filled 12,100 potholes in 2015, and 4,917 so far in 2016”
“Cleaned and lined 57,000 linear feet of storm sewer pipe”
“Fixed 217 water main breaks”
“Replaced approximately three miles of water mains”
“Cleaned and lined 2,300 linear feet of water mains”
“Collected more than 2,300 tons of debris and sediment through street sweeping”
In a press release, the county noted that many of the jobs performed by DES crews took place while the average Arlington resident was sleeping or enjoying their weekend.
“Drinking water, trash, public transit, the sewers, streets and sidewalks rarely take a holiday,” the press release said. “Even County buildings need someone to maintain them, and it’s hard to vacuum or paint during regular business hours.”
Said County Manager Mark Schwartz:
“Every time you leave collection bins at the curb, pause for the crosswalk light or run the tap to brush your teeth, you’re interacting with the County’s Department of Environmental Services.
Sometimes the best work is the work you don’t notice. In Arlington we’re fortunate to have such dedicated, skillful men and women supporting our vital infrastructure.”
Water Main Repairs to Close Road — Arlington Ridge Road is scheduled be closed in both directions at 23rd Street S. from 9 a.m.-4 p.m. today for water main repairs. Detours will be in place, but drivers should consider alternate routes, Arlington County says.
Airport Strike is Back on Starting Tonight — A strike by contract service workers at Reagan National and other major U.S. airports is back on, starting tonight. The strike was initially planned for last week but was postponed due to the Brussels terror attacks. [Washington Post]
Arson Suspect Due in Arlington Court — A Reston man suspected of a home invasion and arson in Fairfax County is scheduled to be in an Arlington courtroom tomorrow. Antwan Green is also facing multiple charges stemming from crashing a stolen vehicle in Arlington on Dec. 10 and carrying a concealed weapon without a permit. [Reston Now]
Fundraiser for Accessible Community Garden — Arlington County is trying to raise $10,000 from donors in order to build four “vertical gardens” that are accessible to those with disabilities or mobility issues. Currently, none of the county’s community gardens are accessible. The vertical gardens would be built at the Glebe & Lang Street Community Garden, along S. Glebe Road. The county is hoping to complete fundraising and construction by the end of June. [Fund Your Park]
Arlington Startup Acquired — Arlington-based startup Encore Alert has been acquired by Meltwater, a San Francisco-based brand analytics and consulting firm. As a result of the acquisition, the Encore Alert team has moved to the Bay Area. [DC Inno]
Co-Working Growing Quickly — Co-working providers are growing quickly and are expected by some analysts “to absolutely explode over the next five years.” Two of the top players are WeWork, which just opened a new office in Crystal City, and MakeOffices, which is opening a new flagship co-working space in Clarendon within the next few months. MakeOffices is based in Rosslyn, after being founded as UberOffices in 2012. [Bisnow]
The southbound lanes of a portion of N. George Mason Drive will be closed to traffic during the evening rush hour.
Southbound traffic is being detoured between Patrick Henry Drive and 20th Street, just south of Lee Highway, according to the Arlington Dept. of Environmental Services. The closure is due to emergency water main repairs, said an Arlington Alert email.
Separately, Marshall Drive remains closed tonight near the Iwo Jima Memorial due to a sinkhole reported this morning. Repairs to the roadway are still underway, according to scanner traffic.
Crews are working to repair a sinkhole on Marshall Drive next to Iwo Jima Memorial. Road closure in effect. pic.twitter.com/qHwp8rhH2C
One block of N. Herndon Street in Lyon Village is closed due to a water main break.
The break happened below the road, between N. Jackson Street and Key Blvd. Crews are on scene preparing to repair the water main.
Repairs are expected to be completed around 11 p.m. Between 5 and 20 water customers are affected, according to Arlington Dept. of Environmental Services spokeswoman Jessica Baxter.
