By Fox23.com News Staff
TULSA, Okla. — The City of Tulsa discussed how crews are addressing waterline breaks and repairs during freezing temperatures.
“Currently, we have 12 waterline breaks that are out there pending right now,” said Josh Bilby, the Water Distribution Manager for the City of Tulsa. “We currently have 12 crews actively working on those, so we’re not too far behind from what’s coming in. With the colder temperatures, we did expect this, so we had extra crews on standby. We had people ready to go, had all our equipment brought in, warmed up and ready to go for this so we can go out there and get things fixed.”
On Monday, we told you about a waterline break that occurred on East 21st Street.
According to Bilby, crews do their best to make repairs while impacting as few residences and businesses as possible.
“With the break yesterday, we had roughly 30 businesses along 21st Street that were impacted by that break in particular. But we try to isolate as few as possible when we’re in a neighborhood because we understand people are home, people are working remote, schools are out. Everyone needs water while they’re at home, so we try to work with that as we can.”
For residences or businesses whose water does get turned off, Bilby said it’s important to take steps to keep the remaining water in the pipes from becoming frozen.
“They can open up their faucets inside, let the water out that’s in their system. Again, keep the cabinet doors open. The warm air going through the house, that helps a lot. When we do bring the waterline back on, we’ll check with customers, make sure everyone has water. If they don’t for some reason, they can call in to that dispatch number and let us know and we’ll come out and try to assess the situation.”
To stay up to date with the latest waterline breaks in Tulsa, you can visit the City of Tulsa’s Waterline Break Board here.
If you notice a waterline break that isn’t on the board or have issues with your water following a waterline repair, you can reach out to the City of Tulsa’s Utility Services at 918-596-9488.
