The Long Gas & Water Problem on my Street Continues

Hi. I know it's been a while since I've written. I've been busy with school this summer and just recently I caught a cold. Still, I'm writing today because the odyssey of the gas & water problems on my street has continued.

You would think it should have ended when they dug up the entire street (well, almost) laid new plastic piping for a block and covered it all back over, paved it and opened the street. It looked so nice, like a black & gray patch-work quilt.

But, this morning when I awoke I didn't have hot water. I checked the water heater and furnace and there was simply no gas. I know I had hot water yesterday evening, what could have happened in the night.

I called the gas company and they sent out a fellow to check it out. He said the problem was likely in the new piping they had just put down and there were fixtures underneath the street which would possibly have to be dug up. But first, they can open each end and blow air through the pipe to clear out any water there might be. I just happened to watch at the moment when it blew out. There probably was about a cup of water, just enough to be a problem. But, how did the water get into the pipe?

They checked the line for pressure and found it wasn't sound. So, today, as on so many other days over the past few months, there are gas company trucks and backhoe on my street digging up the areas just freshly paved a week or two ago.

Fortunately they feel certain there's no problem in the part of the line from the sidewalk to my house. That's certainly good news. It's not a big surprise though. That piping was replaced about 5 years ago with plastic and it's been working fine since. It's the new work recently completed which was apparently not quite airtight.

You could say it began last winter when I wrote about a giant spray of water in the middle of the coldest day of winter, but really this problem goes back much further.

Years ago we had a leak which led to the replacement of the pipe to the house. This is a problem which is fighting to stick around. Why? I don't know.