Water flowing again to nearly 2,000 homes, businesses

Richard Brian

Crews work at the site of a water main break on East Sahara Avenue near Nellis Boulevard.

By Jean Reid Norman (contact)

Published Friday, April 10, 2009 | 3:35 p.m.

Updated Friday, April 10, 2009 | 10:02 p.m.

Water was turned back on to homes and businesses near Sahara Avenue and Nellis Boulevard just before 8 p.m. Friday after a water main break left almost 2,000 people without water for much of the day.

The water lines were expected to take about an hour to fill up and return water pressure back to normal, Roger Buehrer, a spokesman for the Las Vegas Valley Water District, said. But taps should have had some water flowing shortly after 8, he said.

However, he said he expected repairs to the 20-by-20-foot hole that the break created to continue to bottle up traffic at the intersection throughout the night.

“We are still telling people to avoid the intersection until tomorrow,” Buehrer said.

He recommended drivers use Charleston Boulevard instead of Sahara for east-west travel, and Lamb Boulevard instead of Nellis for north-south travel.

An initial break occurred in the line on Sahara just east of Nellis about 1 a.m. Friday while crews were trying to fix a link in a coupling installed in 2002. As they were making the repair, the 45-year-old pipe failed — “disintegrated,” Buehrer said.

That left 1,950 residential and commercial customers, mostly west of Nellis to Lamb and from Vegas Valley to Mountain Vista boulevards, without service starting about noon, he said.

Customers were notified before the shutoff with electronic calls through the water district’s emergency notification system, he said.

Buehrer said he did not know how long it will take to resume service, but he estimated “hours, not days.”

“It’s such an inconvenience for people to be without their water service,” he said.

At Jo-Anns Beauty Salon, 2645 S. Nellis Blvd., the water went off at 11:15 a.m., in the middle of several color jobs, owner Roxanne Murray said. Luckily, the shop keeps a five-gallon jug of water on hand just for such an occurrence.

“You’ve got to do it fast,” Murray said. “When you have chemicals on customers’ hair, you have to do something.”

To make sure they could keep their appointments throughout the day, employees went out and bought another three five-gallon jugs of water, she said.

Quizno’s Subs, 2585 S. Nellis, received early notification and was able to fill every container in the store with water before service was shut off, a manager said.

Because of that preparation, the sub shop was able to stay open, the manager said.

Before repairs on the 12-inch pipe can begin, the water has to be drained from it, he said. Once work begins, he said, traffic at the intersection will get only worse.

“It’s a mess,” he said.