CARTERVILLE, Ill. (WSIL) -- There are plans to improve Carterville's water system after two main breaks on South Pennsylvania Street shut down service citywide for most of Monday.
Mayor Brad Robinson says the USDA approved a $4.5 million grant for the city that could potentially bolster the city's water storage.
Robinson says the amount approved was the original cost of the project and believes the amount could be higher because of inflation.
"We'll be putting out bids in the spring for two new water towers, an additional ground storage tank, and a new trunk main that will run from Howerton Street on Division north all the way to the fire department," Robinson said.
Tuesday brought much-needed rest for Carterville's street crews after they worked 17 hours to fix both breaks.
The first break was discovered around 6 a.m. Monday while crews were working their snow routes, according to Robinson. At around 1:30 p.m., Robinson says they shut off service after the break led to a loss of water storage.
"If this system was much newer, this area could've been isolated to only affect a couple of blocks," Robinson said. "Everything's interconnected and there's not enough valves to isolate particular problematic areas."
Crews were able to fix the first break around 3:45 p.m. by using a 10 to 12-foot splice of pipe. A boil order was issued soon after. Robinson said the fix lasted an hour before the second break happened.
"About 6-feet to the north of the new splice we had another main break on the same line. So we had to dig back farther and we were able to place a clamp on that area and secure it," Robinson said.
The splice and the clamp were temporary solutions to get the water back on, Robinson says.
Crews were finished securing the second break by about 10:40 p.m. and patched up the hole on South Pennsylvania Street, between Barr and Prentice Streets. They returned Tuesday to clean and reduce the street to one lane.
Some of the city's pipes, like the ones beneath Pennsylvania Street, date back about 100 years. Robinson estimates the city will need 100 to 200-feet of new pipes to fix the most problematic areas that involve the old pipes.
"So when we find [breaks] and we replace those sections we also add additional valving," Robinson said.
The city remains under a boil order until the city receives water test results from a lab in Carbondale. Those results, and a possible boil order lift, could come as soon as Wednesday.
Robinson is looking forward to a meeting on January 5 where the water and sewer departments will meet to discuss fixes and more ways to obtain federal funds.
"Having new pieces connecting to older pieces sometimes creates problems too," Robinson said. "It's slow work and it's expensive."