BOISE — Road and utility crews at Boise State are finishing up repairs Tuesday on a section of road at the intersection of University Drive and Lincoln Street that was again closed because of a water main break.
Many are now asking, why over the last few years has the same stretch of road seen the cycle of water main breaks and repairs?
Now there are some rumors on social media that utility managers want to dispel to explain to everyone what exactly is happening.
Suez Water General Manager Marshall Thompson explains that the pipe that was just fixed in October at Boise State is different from the one that busted over the weekend.
"It is not the same leak that occurred earlier this year, it's immediately adjacent to it, but it's not the same leak," said Thompson.
Both water main breaks shut down the traffic-heavy BSU intersection, leaving inconvenienced drivers wondering why similar breaks on campus continue to happen.
"I think ultimately the cause of the main break is the same: It's the combination of 30-year-old pipe on top of poor bedding standards from the 1980s, Thompson said. "That is not how we would install pipe today."
Thompson explains that plastic piping used 30 years is now having a tough time keeping up.
"It was common at that time to bed new mains, install them over native rock and in this area it's particularly rocky,” said Thompson.
Those old pipes are seeing tremendous stress on the bed made of large river rocks and starting to crack as a result.
But Thompson says every time one does break, Suez is able to slowly update the water main with better material.
"The new repairs that we do every single time is an improvement of what was there," he said. "Ultimately though, this entire intersection needs to be fully replaced all the way around the intersection and past the student union building."
Suez has been trying to get that project done this year, but contractor shortages in the Valley have continued to push back the plan.
"I know that doing a repair in this case may not seem like a long-term solution, but it's the best thing we can do to put the campus back in water while we plan for the long-term replacement of the pipe," said Thompson.
Suez Water hopes a new water main project will be done within the next year.