On Saturday, January 11th, at approximately 4:30 a.m., the Philadelphia Water Department (PWD) was alerted to a failure on a section of a 48” transmission main in the parking lot of Baker’s Centre, a shopping plaza at 3400 Fox Street. The broken pipe was shut down at approximately 6:20 a.m. after releasing approximately 13 million gallons of water.

The Water Department is currently still performing excavation work and assessment of the work necessary to repair the broken section of water main. This work site has been particularly difficult due to the close proximity of several 48 inch water mains all located within feet of each other. The crews working must hand dig around the main, and heavy equipment is being used very carefully only when possible. Particular care must be taken to not damage any of the other mains in that location, so work is progressing, but with extreme diligence.

All impacted businesses should have already spoken to a Customer Service Representative. If that still has not occurred, we ask that they contact our Customer Service Representatives by calling 215-685-9602.

PWD will continue to update this page as more information becomes available.

Updates: February 3, 2014

• excavation work is complete
• Special fittings must be delivered before we will be able to begin replacing the section of main.
• The Water Department is investigating a slow but steady flow of water that is entering the excavation from an unknown source. Several PWD units are working to identify the source of this water.
• At this point, we are unable to provide a time frame for completion.