Extreme Heat, Old Infrastructure Has Caused Over 80 Water Main Breaks In Detroit

(CBS DETROIT) - Record heat isn't the only thing breaking in the city of Detroit, over the past week in a half, there have been over 80 water main breaks.

"84 in the last 10 days, we have about 39 that were working on right now," said Director Detroit Water and Sewerage Department Gary Brown.  

Brown says the breaks are scattered throughout the city, with the larger one's being in Palmer Park off Woodward and on 2nd and Lothrop, forcing the closure of New Center One and other buildings in the area.  

"We're already running on limited hours of operations, because no one is running everyday anyway right now, so like that's just another blow we taking," said Upperow Luxury Clothing Store Owner, Anthony Thompson.

The Upperow clothing store is located inside the New Center One building. Thompson says he received notice yesterday that the building would be shut down due to a water main break.

Just reopening last month after being closed for three months due to the states shut down order, Thompson says he's worried this will now affect his business.

"I really hope I can open Friday because Fridays are really hot days for us," said Thompson.

Hot days and an old infrastructure is to blame for the water main breaks.

"We anticipate every summer an abnormal number of water main breaks," said Brown.

As temperatures remain in the 90s Brown says there will be more water main breaks throughout the city, he has crews ready to go.

"By making sure we have contractor capacity to supplement the workers that work at DWSD in order to handle the extra load," said Brown.

Brown says repairs usually take up to two days.

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