More Water Main Ruptures Plague Sherwood Way Restaurants Saturday

Early this morning until the late this afternoon, several restaurants including Buffalo Wild Wings, Outback Steakhouse, McAlister's Deli, Taco Bell, and others on the west side of San Angelo reported low water pressure. Some restaurants chose not to open.

The City of San Angelo water crews were hard at work all day fixing more broken water lines.

Most of the restaurants report that they are now open as of 7:30 p.m.

Here are the details of what happened today, according to City of San Angelo Public Information Officer Anthony Wilson:

A 14-inch main blew along Sherwood Way between South Oxford Drive and Clare Drive at about 7 a.m. Water Distribution crews replaced an eight-foot section of pipe.

About the time those repairs were complete, an old clamp failed on a 16-inch main along Sherwood Way in front of Mitchell Buick-GMC, 4105 Sherwood Way.

Both mains are feeder mains, requiring that more valves be closed to isolate the sections that failed. As a result, a larger service area than is normally the case was without water service, affecting many businesses and homes. One of the isolating valves was covered during a widening of Sherwood Way, which complicated and delayed the repairs.

Following a flushing of lines, water service was restored about 4:45 p.m.

Water Distribution Superintendent Simon Cuellar said there were indications of a pressure increase in both places. But Cuellar was unsure whether there was any residual effect from Thursday evening's electrical malfunction, which briefly shut down the automated controls at the water treatment plant and resulted in a buildup of pressure that yielded breaks in five aging mains.