Brockton water main breaks again

BROCKTON, Mass. — Over the weekend another water main broke in the same section of North Main Street in Brockton.

"I still can't wrap my head around it happening again," said local business owner Paul Stewart.

Paul Stewart, owner of Home Cafe, said his restaurant was not damaged by Saturday's incident, but he still hasn't been able to open his restaurant since the last water main break less than a month ago and just feet away.

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On Jan. 22, the pipe ruptured, flooding the basement, ruining equipment, damaging the heating system and shutting down operations. Stewart filed claims and is waiting for the money from his insurance company or the city to open up again.

"All the heating systems are out, the walk-ins, refrigerators, slicers, ice machines, everything's wiped out," said Stewart.

But the January incident wasn't the first water main break Stewart dealt with, either. Eight years ago, the water main broke, causing extensive structural damage and closing the business for 10 months.

Mayor Bill Carpenter said Stewart will eventually be taken care of financially.

"Eight years ago, he was paid claims by both his insurance company and the city," Carpenter said, "and the same thing will happen again with the incident last month."

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Carpenter said the problem is that the city's infrastructure is 85 years old. Repeatedly making repairs to an old pipe doesn't fix the problem; a replacement pipe is needed, but it is expensive.

"It would be hundreds of millions of dollars to replace all of the pipe that needs to be replaced," said Carpenter.

Nonetheless, the city began engineering plans immediately after the January water main break to replace the main with a 200-foot-long pipe. The cost for the two-block pipe will be $150,000 to $200,000, the mayor estimated.

But as Stewart waits for that more permanent solution, he fears another disaster could hit any day.

"It's going to bust through again, and it's like, what am I doing?" Stewart said. "Why am I trying to rebuild and put the place back together and there's no reassurance that this is not going to happen again?"

Cox Media Group