Repairs Again Set for Southern Arizona Water Main

Tucson, Ariz., officials are preparing to dig up parts of a water line that failed in 1999 and appears ready to fail again.

City officials say the 1999 break flooded a west-side neighborhood with 38 million gallons of water and cost the city $2.5 million to buy four destroyed homes and repair dozens more.

The 96-inch concrete line is wrapped with wire bands for strength. A fiber-optic monitoring cable installed in 2007 picked up signs the bands are snapping along a section of the pipe.

Tucson Water spokesman Fernando Molina tells the Arizona Daily Star the apparent failures are in a section of the pipe just upstream of the 1999 break near the Paseo Vista neighborhood.

Crews are draining the pipe and will begin repairs on Monday.