If someone can point me to someplace I can put some jpg's I have pic's of a new 7 foot diameter water main going in in Tampa. It scares the bejeezus outa me. Last year we had a 24" main break on Busch Blvd at night during a rainstorm.

A Jeep Cherokee dove into the hole it left in the intersection... about 11 FEET deep, which happened in minutes. Luckily, someone at a gas station saw the dude drive into the hole, and rescued him.

At 7 FEET in diameter, this would wipe out a neighborhood in very short order. (Copied from TB2k)

-- Anonymous, June 07, 2001

Answers

Water main breaks are more frequent than you might imagine. Luckily, most are the old ones, relatively small diameter. Yes, that is frightening; I wouldn't like to have one in my neighborhood.

Slightly related:

New Orleans' Pumping Station No. 6, the largest drainage pumping station in the world, moves rainwater from city streets to Lake Pontchartrain via canal. The station has seven pumps with a total capacity of more than 9,380 cubic feet of water per second. This means that over six billion gallons of water per day may be moved through the station in a 24-hour period. New Orleans also has 18 other pumping stations.

[OG Note: Anyone who lives in NO for more than a few weeks hears about the engineer who created this pumping system in the late 1800s. If only today's planners and engineers were so far-sighted--and could build such sturdy projects! The canals in New Orleans are drainage systems themselves and vehicles often disappear below their placid waters.]

-- Anonymous, June 07, 2001

For you engineering types, so you can see the size of the pipes above:

The system was perfected about twenty years later than I remembered.

-- Anonymous, June 07, 2001

"The system was perfected about twenty years later than I remembered."

BWAHAHA.... OG, you funny!

-- Anonymous, June 07, 2001