UPDATED: Water restored to all NKU buildings following water main break

A+water+main+break+caused+several+buildings+to+close+Monday%2C+Aug.+18%2C+2014.+The+incident+occurred+when+a+backhoe+struck+the+water+line+on+the+Campus+Recreation+Center+construction+site.

Tori Lentz

A water main break caused several buildings to close Monday, Aug. 18, 2014. The incident occurred when a backhoe struck the water line on the Campus Recreation Center construction site.

Water service has been restored to all buildings following a water main break that occurred Monday afternoon outside of the Recreation Center. The incident occurred at the construction site on Kenton Drive.

According to Assistant Vice President for Facilities Larry Blake, water service was restored around 9 p.m. The damage to the water line was minor and easily repaired, he said. Afterwards, all contaminated water was flushed out of the system. He estimated the repair cost under $1,000.

The contractor will be responsible for footing the cost of the repair as well as any damages the university experienced as a direct result of the outage, Blake said.

The university also had to repair a valve that failed when water was first restored to Albright Health Center. Blake estimated the cost to be between $1,000-$1,500.

The Student Union, Recreation Center and Albright Health Center/ Regents Hall are scheduled to reopen Tuesday morning.

According to construction workers, one worker accidentally drilled through a pipe Monday afternoon, causing a water main break that evacuated the Student Union, Recreation Center and Albright Health Center/ Regents Hall.

The Student Union did not have water, which posed a fire risk because the sprinklers could not work, Dean Waple said.

The movie night on the Griffin Hall oval, part of Victor Fest, went on as planned.

“We’ll do what we normally do, roll with the punches and move on,” said Lisa Brinkman, director of educational talent search.

This is not the first time construction has caused issues in Albright Health Center/ Regents Hall. Waple said that the saws used by construction workers this summer caused the lights to go out in the building about five times this summer.

Check back at thenortherner.com for continuing updates.

 

Edit: Vice President of Administration Ken Ramey said that the break was caused by a backhoe that struck the pipe.

“When we lose water to the facilities, we shut them down primarily for safety reasons,” Ramey said, adding that at first administrators thought that the Student Union was safe but went down five to ten minutes later once a bypass was performed.

The water was returned to the Student Union within 30 to 45 minutes of the incident, according to Ramey.

“At that point in time everything had already been rescheduled. Food service had been shut down and couldn’t be reopened, so we made the decision to keep that building closed,” he said.

According to Ramey, all repairs were finalized that night by 10 p.m.