On August 25, 2024, a leak was found under Santa Ana Loop close to the driveway to 36 Santa Ana Loop. Based on reports from neighbors, the pavement started to sink maybe two weeks earlier, and water first appeared at the surface on the 24th or 25th.
Rory Eastman of Heritage Land and Water LLC was asked to do the repair. Because the area has all the utilities very close together, he arranged for work to be done by Eric Pinon of JP Mainline LLC. On August 29, 2024, they cut the pavement and did all the excavation with a hydro-vac truck. They were able to locate the leak within a couple of hours – a pinhole leak on the 3/4″ black HDPE service line to 39 Santa Ana Loop. The saddle on the 6″ PVC main line is angled up about 45 degrees, so the service line had a fairly significant short radius bend to turn horizontal, which may have added stress at that point. Repair was made with about 6″ of blue 3/4″ PEX tubing, from the saddle fitting to a new brass coupling to the existing black HPDE tubing. The 6″ main and saddle are over 5′ deep, under the gas lines, what appears to be a phone cable, and two white PVC conduits that may carry Comcast cables.
After the new tubing was put in and water turned on to check for leaks, sand bedding material from the W3ATF site was put around the tubing before the hole was backfilled. Dry dirt was used to fill the rest of the hole, compacted with a jumping jack compactor, followed by new asphalt.
