Woodland Park water service restored to nearly all customers

Water service has been restored to all but a handful of Woodland Park residents and businesses after an early morning water main break disrupted service to nearly 2,000 customers, city Utilities Director Jim Schultz said about 8:40 a.m. today.

About 10 single-family homes and townhomes and a couple of restaurants and a small office, however, will probably be without service for much of the day as work crews repair the break, Schultz said. That means no water for drinking, bathing or flushing, he said.

Those customers are near the site of the break, which occurred in a 12-inch, plastic water pipe along U.S. Highway 24, between Paradise Circle and Trull Road, in southeast Woodland Park, Schultz said. The break forced a two-hour delay for Woodland Park RE-2 schools, and resulted in either no water or low pressure for an estimated 1,900 customers, or 25 percent of the town of 7,600, Schultz said. Woodland Park police started receiving calls about the problem around 3 a.m.

The cause of the break might have been the freezing and thawing of the ground around the pipe, which caused it to shift and break, Schultz said. A rock against the pipe or a weak spot could have added to the problem, he said. The pipe is probably about 30 years old, Schultz said.

Westbound traffic along U.S. 24 is getting by the site, but has been narrowed to one lane as crews work to repair the problem, Schultz said.