NOVI, Mich. (WXYZ) — The Great Lakes Water Authority said it's isolated a broken water main in Novi and now has a better idea of when that pipe will be repaired.
Crews restored water pressure for customers, early Friday morning.
Watch Darren Cunningham's video report below:
The pipe ruptured early Thursday morning on 14 Mile Road near M-5 and caused several schools to shut down since they didn't have running water.
Novi and Walled Lake remain under a boil water advisory.
“The timeline right now that we are looking at is approximately 10 to 15 days to be able to make the repair," GLWA director of transmission Pete Fromm told 7 News Detroit.
At the outset of the water main break, his crew faced two separate tasks. One includes reaching and repairing the broken 42-inch pipe. That's ongoing.
The other task was restoring water pressure to customers by connecting them to a different pipe.
Previous coverage: Novi water main break forces school closures, threatens homecoming weekend activities
Residents in the Haverhill subdivision who 7 News Detroit spoke with are pleased it occurred as soon as it did.
“This construction crew did an amazing job. The water was on at 3 in the morning between 3 and 3:30 in the morning, which I didn’t personally anticipate, but that was pretty fast," resident Steve Gabel said.
Resident Will Allen said, “Yeah, we're pretty happy with it. We're not happy with the sinkhole but happy with the response of these guys.”
Resident Ryo Nishigima said, “Suddenly, the sink started making a noise, and we just realized and we realized the line was back.
Resident Karen Cortis said, "Excellent. They've been right on top of it all night long and yeah, I think they're doing a great job."
But the boil water advisory remains in effect, the road is still busted up and traffic has to be rerouted. The disruption is an inconvenience resident Karen Cortis said she’s experienced before.
“What’s causing it? It’s not like it’s cold temperatures. So, what’s causing the breaks?” Cortis asked.
7 News Detroit took that question to William Wolfson. He's the deputy chief executive officer of GLWA.
“Every day we think about what could possibly go wrong, and we try to invest and be proactive for that," he said.
Wolfson said there have been two previous breaks on this water main system.
“Last time when we had a break in this main, we went in and we inspected it and we identified several other segments of pipe that look, frankly one was what they call incipient failure. Hadn’t failed yet, but it was going to. It was in the process of failing. So we were able to go in and we were able to line those pipes and repair those pipes," he explained.
Wolfson said that extended the life of those 20-foot sections of pipe for about another 50 years. He said advancements in technology in the last 15 years have improved inspection methods. However, ultimately, he said funding is crucial to prevent disruptive ruptures like this one.
Previous coverage: Businesses, neighbors navigate water main break
He said the pipes are aged, and the one under repair was built in 1973. Wolfson cited a study by SEMCOG that found it would cost roughly $3.5 billion to replace GLWA's whole system.
“To be very frank, the universe isn’t perfect, and that’s where we really need to invest in our infrastructure, otherwise, these incidents, which seem isolated and seem unique in their... and they get all of our attention when they occur because water comes shooting into the air are going to become more and more frequent," he said.
