Drilling contractor pierces water main

Stephen Curran

Wednesday, June 29, 2005 | 9:45 a.m.

A pierced water main brought vehicles at one of the Las Vegas Valley's busiest intersections to a crawl Tuesday morning, water district officials said.

Inspectors for the Las Vegas Valley Water District said a drilling contractor struck a 60-inch pipe on Frank Sinatra Drive near Tropicana Road early Monday morning, causing a joint at Tropicana and Maryland Parkway to break about 5 that evening, spokesman J.C. Davis said.

The break, which left crews scrambling to keep water flowing to hundreds of nearby homes and businesses, also brought traffic on Tropicana east of Maryland to one lane, he said.

A temporary fix was in place Tuesday evening, although staffing and scheduling conflicts will keep the water district from performing the permanent repairs for another couple of weeks. Traffic is expected to come to a crawl again as workers perform the permanent work. Officials expect a lane closure on east-bound Tropicana Road all day today through tonight's evening commute.

Meanwhile inspectors from the Clark County Health District scoured nearby businesses to ensure restaurants and tattoo and body piercing shops were not operating without running water. None of what Davis estimated were roughly 50 businesses affected were found in violation, health district spokesman Dave Tonelli said.

The Hard Rock Hotel voluntarily closed two of its bars until full water pressure was restored, Tonelli said. It was the only affected business to do so, he added.

Inspectors said they did not know if the contractor, Las Vegas-based Allen Drilling, Inc., will face any fines for striking the water main. It was unclear this morning if the contractor called the water district before the drilling started, a precaution required by law, Davis said.

"That's why we have 'call before you dig' laws," he said.

If found in violation, the company will be held liable for the cost of repairing the pipe, which Davis estimated would be "many thousands of dollars."

The incident occurred about 150 feet from where Clark County Reclamation crews are working to rehabilitate an aging sewer line under Flamingo Road and Tropicana Avenue. That $13.2 million project, which has kept parts of Tropicana closed this month, is scheduled for completion in September.

The worker who struck the pipe is not believed to have been working on that project, Davis said.