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Water mains break all over town

Thursday morning snowfall could amount to 'a good three inches'
Photos: Winter weather photos
Crashes cause problems for morning commuters
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Traffic backs up along westbound Interstate 70 just east of the I-75 interchange Tuesday morning, Jan 5, due to accidents on the highway.

Staff photo by Jan Underwood Traffic backs up along westbound Interstate 70 just east of the I-75 interchange Tuesday morning, Jan 5, due to accidents on the highway.

By Lawrence Budd and Katherine Ullmer
Staff Writers Updated 9:47 PM Tuesday, January 5, 2010

KETTERING — Utility workers were faced with fixing water mains in Kettering, Riverside and Trotwood on Tuesday, Jan. 5, victims of sub-freezing temperatures and time, officials said.

“A lot of our infrastructure is aging,” said Stephanie Smith, communications manager for Montgomery County Water Services. It’s not (just) a Montgomery County problem. It’s a situation we see throughout the United States.”

Three main breaks logged Tuesday by county crews brought this year’s total to more than a dozen, Smith said.

While repairing breaks on Hendon Avenue in Riverside and Georgian Drive and Regent Street in Kettering, crews were holding off until after 6 p.m. on fixing the main on E. Dorothy Lane serving the Kiddie Kampus Day Care Center, Smith said.

“I need to have water at all times,” said a woman identifying herself as the center director who declined to be named .

In Trotwood, city crews otherwise expected to repair the main near 7 Elmore St., on Tuesday were busy with snow removal.

“We don’t have a lot of men,” said Dalton Hines, Trotwood’s public works superintendent.

The repair is now scheduled for Wednesday, Jan. 6. Elmore is to be closed, traffic rerouted to North and West Sherry drives.

A break on Vaniman Avenue at MacMillan Drive, scheduled for repair Wednesday, will now be fixed on Thursday, Jan. 7, Hines said.

Meanwhile residents could experience reduced pressure or discolored water, officials said.

The seasonal rash of main breaks is the result of the pressure - from shifts in the ground around the pipes caused by fluctuating temperatures - on the aging pipes, Hines said.

Hines declined to blame the breaks entirely on the weather.

“It would be nice if we had new ductile (pipe),” he said.

Ice on the bridge over Interstate 75 between Piqua and Troy sent occupants of one vehicle to the Upper Valley Medical Center and others sliding about noon today, Jan. 5.

“It was 12:19 when this all kind of broke loose,” said Sgt. Brian Aller of the Ohio Highway Patrol post in Piqua. “It’s been a little crazy today.”

Troopers handled at least four crashes involving cars hitting guardrails or other cars on the bridges near the rest areas on I-75 until the Ohio Department of Transportation resalted the bridges, Aller said.

“It alleviated the problem for now,” Aller said.

He was unable to provide other details on the injuries in the crash.

In Clark County, troopers from the highway patrol post worked 10 to 20 crashes, none involving injuries, a dispatcher said.

An overnight snow of about an inch in the Dayton area has caused treacherous driving in some spots, with drivers sliding off roads and into walls.

The Ohio State Patrol, Dayton Post, said they were showing a crash on southbound I-75 at the 42 mile post in Montgomery County at 7 a.m. Several other crashes were reported on I-70 westbound in the Huber Heights area, one in which a pickup truck completely turned around. No major injury accidents have been reported at this time.

I-75 southbound was closed for a while early this morning when a tanker truck jack-knifed and slid into a wall near Edwin C. Moses Boulevard.

Dayton salt trucks were out all night and I-75 was mostly just wet this morning, according to televised reports, but I-70 was experiencing several crashes in the Huber Heights area around 6:30 a.m.

Jeffrey Sites, meteorologist for the National Weather Service in Wilmington said we could expect scattered snow showers throughout the day with highs in the mid 20s. Snow accumulation should be less than one inch today. Tonight’s low should be 10 to 15 degrees.

The next snow storm system is scheduled to come on Thursday, with 1 to 3 inches or 2 to 4 inches expected, Sites said.

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