Water main breaks across North Texas cause traffic trouble, frustrate homeowners
DALLAS - The main roads in North Texas were mostly clear Tuesday morning, but the biggest problems were not on the major highways.
The main problems were vehicles that have stalled because of the cold and more than a dozen water main breaks in Dallas and Fort Worth.
A majority of the breaks were in Tarrant County.
One of them was near the Fort Worth Police Department on Felix Street.
Fort Worth Water handled more than 20 water main breaks Tuesday alone.
Crews work to fix broken water main in Downtown Dallas
The extremely cold weather is causing a lot of problems with broken pipes, including water mains. FOX 4's Tisia Muzinga is near the Pearl Street exit off the Woodall Rodgers Freeway in Downtown Dallas where crews are working to repair a break that covered the street in water and ice.
As the sun came up, we saw crews working in multiple neighborhoods.
Robert Hill lives in Fort Worth. A water main break took out service to his home Monday evening.
Hill had five gallons of bottled water in his home and has rationed it out to do things like brush his teeth, cook and provide water for his dogs.
"I don’t know how long we will be without water," he said.
Dallas weather: TxDOT crews treating icy spots ahead of Tuesday drive
TxDOT in Dallas says it is now focusing on specific areas where there are signs of black ice.
Some of the bigger problems are on Highway 377 north of Benbrook, on Highway 199 heading toward Downtown Fort Worth, and along Interstate 35W west of Felix Street,
The city of Dallas also dealt with its share of issues.
"It is the temperature changes, the pipe material. It is the age of the infrastructure and a combination can create an impact on the pipe infrastructure," said Eduardo Valerio with Dallas Water.
In Downtown Dallas, there was a major break on the Pearl Street exit ramp from U.S. Highway 75 to the Woodall Rodgers freeway.
Dallas police said they got a call about the water on Pearl Street around 3 a.m. and found a water main ruptured right in front of the Federal Reserve Building.
Water was flowing down the street and some of it turned into ice.
City workers are repairing the break by hand because it’s close to underground fiber, gas, phone and power lines.
Drivers who have gone around the barriers to use the closed exit have made the situation dangerous.
There's evidence of another break in Dallas' Bishop Arts District.
FOX 4 viewer Stephanie Edwards said several trees in that neighborhood near Cedar Hill Avenue and Davis Street are now covered in ice.
And when the thaw begins, homeowners need to take care.
While it sounds obvious, Dallas Fire urged people to not apply heat to pipes because it can cause an even bigger problem.
"The biggest thing we would like to stress to people is do not try to sweat the pipes," said Rob Borse with Dallas Fire-Rescue. "We have had instances in the past where someone tried to provide heat directly to the pipes. That is not a safe practice."
Tony Hernandez with Z Plumbers North Texas says we’ll likely see the most amount of burst pipes from the arctic blast on Wednesday.
"Things will start thawing out, and that’s when people are going to start realizing what damage has been done during this wintertime," he said.
It’s likely some North Texans have burst pipes, but water has yet to show.
"They just don’t know because things are frozen," Hernandez said.
In Dallas and Fort Worth, there are not enough repair crews to go around. Some water main breaks are unassigned as of Tuesday evening.
The city of Dallas says call 311 first and not the water department if there is a main break in your community.