CORNWALL – A city waterworks crew has repaired a water main which ruptured during the tail end of a weekend beer festival in Lamoureux Park.
As Cornwall Newswatch first told you Sunday, patrons at Summer Beer Fest ended up in ankle-deep water and a sinkhole opened up in a beer tent, shortly after it closed on Saturday night.
An excavator was brought in Monday morning to dig up the section in the north end of the park, near the clock tower.
Shawn O’Brien, supervisor of water distribution and wastewater collection, told Cornwall Newswatch they found corrosion had eaten a hole in the bottom of the 4-inch water main.
Crews were able to make a repair to the pipe and include a device to slow down any future pipe corrosion, called an anode.
“The anode gets cad welded on to the pipe so any current, that will draw the current out, and so that will get eaten up first before the pipe will get eaten up…it’s like a sacrificial lamb,” O’Brien said.
O’Brien was surprised how deep the pipe was in the ground given the lay of the land around Lamoureux Park.
The whole job from start to finish was relatively quick – 3-4 hours – considering the location did not have any other utilities such as natural gas or electrical, O’Brien said.