Twin water main breaks bedeviled Fairfax County authorities Tuesday, an unwanted snag that shut down lanes of traffic near the Huntington Metro Station on an already hectic Inauguration Day.
The breaks were reported in short succession, first at the intersection of Huntington Avenue and Fifer Drive at about 12:25 p.m., and then at Route 1 and Collard Street about 25 minutes later, according to Fairfax County Police Department spokeswoman Tawny Wright. Motorists were told to expect delays.
At the Huntington and Fifer break, crews quickly carried out a temporary fix and resumed for permanent repairs early in the evening, which was expected to shut down one lane in each direction of Huntington Avenue, Wright said.
The other break was fixed faster, but required road repairs that were expected to take about three hours, closing two of the three southbound lanes on Richmond Highway.
Cold weather caused other problems for pipes in Fairfax County on Tuesday. Fairfax Water, the county’s water utility, said in a special announcement it had received a high volume of calls related to disrupted water service, which “dramatically increased hold times” for callers.
“If you do not have water in your home, the most likely explanation is that you have frozen pipes,” the utility said in the announcement. Officials did not return calls for comment.
The mounting problem of the region’s aging pipe infrastructure has been thrust to the forefront after a series of burst water mains that caused deep disruptions in recent months.
A succession of breaks on Saturday left about 90,000 people temporarily without water in Prince George’s County. In December, a 66-inch water main break along River Road in Montgomery County drew national attention as rescue workers braved swift-moving currents to rescue stranded motorists.
