Photograph by George Sakkestad

It took workers all day last Thursday to repair the burst pipes and fill the hole that left busy E. Main Street closed to traffic, beginning on the afternoon of Sept. 1. The street opened to traffic about 8 p.m. on Sept. 2.

Comedy of Errors on W. Main Street

By Jeff Kearns

Wednesday was just one of those days. San Jose Water Company crews doing maintenance work on underground water mains somehow caused one of the high-pressure pipes to leak, causing a chain reaction that severed a natural-gas line, caused a minor sewage leak and damaged underground phone lines.

The problems began on Sept. 1 at about 3 p.m., when a contractor, working on a sewer update project for the Water Company, had trouble tapping into a new water main leading to a giant 30-inch pipe under the street. The 30-inch pipe is the main connector pipe between the town and the Montevina treatment plant near Lexington Reservoir.

When the water started leaking, it quickly flooded the pit in the street, and the water flow undermined sewage lines between a building and the sewer main. West Valley Sanitation District officials said the leak was minor, and that the main sewer line was not damaged.

The situation got worse when a natural-gas line broke at about 4:30 p.m., but how it happened depends on whom you ask.

Police and town officials say a backhoe operator trying to fix the water leak sliced through the line, but the Water Company says the cause was water leaking from the main line.

There's also some dispute over when the sewer line broke. Town officials say it happened Wednesday night, but a spokesman for the Sanitation District say it didn't happen until around 8 a.m. the following day.

In any case, the leak forced the evacuation of several businesses and an apartment building on W. Main Street for about two hours. Several county fire engines were on the scene in case the gas leak took a turn for the worse. The line was a connector between the gas main under the street and an apartment building.

A PG&E worker was on the scene within 15 minutes, but he said he couldn't do anything to turn off the gas until the flooding in the pit receded. After Water Company crews turned off the water, another PG&E crew arrived and turned off the gas at about 5:45 p.m.

Police say the area was evacuated as a precaution. Even though there was a breeze through the area, the wind shifted later in afternoon, blowing the gas fumes toward the apartment building at 14 W. Main St. That's when police ordered the evacuation.

During the fiasco, W. Main Street was closed to auto and foot traffic in both directions between University and College avenues, which created major gridlock on other streets leading into the area that evening and the following morning. E. Main Street and Los Gatos Boulevard were especially clogged, as was University Avenue, as police told motorists to turn around. Detour signs went up on the evening of the incident, but traffic was still snarled during the morning commute the next day.

Water District spokesman Bob Day said it took about 24 hours to repair the water main, but that service wasn't disrupted for water customers. Day said the initial leak was caused by West Valley Construction. Town officials and PG&E, however, say t R.W. French Construction was doing the water main work.

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