LINCOLN, Maine — Forty-four Lincoln Water District customers on West Broadway were ordered to boil water Friday in the aftermath of a double water main break that crews worked overnight Thursday to fix, officials said.
The crews repaired the two mains on West Broadway in the area of Machias Savings Bank in 16 hours of labor that ended at 6:30 a.m. Friday. In effect until further notice, the boil-water order applies to the 44 customers on West Broadway between Goding Avenue and the Emera Maine building about a mile to the west, Lincoln Water District Assistant Superintendent Nancy Osborn said.
The first break in the 12-inch main occurred shortly before 2 p.m. Thursday near the bank. A crew had isolated one break near the bank and the intersection with Penobscot Valley Avenue and River Road, but they were still getting enough water coming from their digging that they suspected that another break had occurred nearby, said Jeff Day, Lincoln Water District superintendent.
Traffic flowed normally around the work site.
The Lincoln Water District serves about 1,500 customers in Howland and Lincoln through four gravel-packed wells in a ground-water aquifer in the most southerly part of Lincoln. The water source has been in use since 1961 and feeds 27 miles of water transmission and distribution mains in Lincoln, including 132 public fire hydrants and 30 private fire services, according to lincolnwaterdistrict.org.
Water district officials don’t yet know how much the repair work will cost, Osborn said. Most of the affected customers are businesses along West Broadway, one of Lincoln’s primary retail arteries.
It was unclear how many of them had shut down because of the breaks. Dunkin’ Donuts was open but not serving coffee. Tim Hortons was serving coffee, Osborn said, because the store had its own water filtration system.
Fire hydrant service to the affected area was partly restored on Friday morning, firefighters said.