Middletown water main break

Middletown, Conn. (WTNH) - It happened again - another water main break in Middletown, and the reason for this break under Pine Street is a pipe that cracked after being in the ground for 117 years.

"1893 vintage, old," said Tom Tretault of Middletown Water & Sewer Department. "Same story. A big blowout on it. It looks like we're going to have to replace about 8 to 10 feet of pipe."

That pipe blew late Thursday night on a street that runs next to the Wesleyan University campus.

"The water was very brown and like murky and it was coming down pretty fast," Wesleyan student John Olbeter said. "It looked like someone was draining their pool, but it was coming a lot faster and it was kind of gross."

The flooding from the break was kept to a minimum, but Wesleyan students in a dozen buildings along Pine Street had to do without water for a few hours. Once the water was off, repair crews had to dig up the street, access the pipe, cut it and replace it.

By their own count they've done this a dozen times in Middletown since mid-summer, all because the pipes in aging cities like this are reaching the end of their lifespan.

"Well it isn't just Middletown, it's nationwide," Tretault said. "The infrastructure is old. You've got a lot of pipe in the ground that's 130, 140 years old. It's gotta get replaced."

But replacing miles and miles of pipe costs lots and lots of money, so that's not likely to happen. Fortunately they did get the water turned on by about 10 a.m. and everything is pretty much back to normal.