The water main breaks that closed major Baltimore streets and disrupted rail service in April also washed away sizable chunks the city's budget.
Fixing the 20-inch main that ruptured at Gay and Lombard streets on April 28 cost $222,523, according to figures from the city's finance department. That does not include thousands of dollars in police and fire overtime, or the lost work of city employees sent home because there was no water service in their buildings.
The city spent $69,258 to repair another water main break the next day, when a 36-inch pipe burst in Halethorpe and delayed Amtrak service on the eastern seaboard. It was much easier for city workers to gain access to that pipe and repair the damage, officials said, which is why it cost much less to fix than the downtown break.
The Lombard break also prompted the city to send home more than 2,000 city workers, causing an estimated loss of $456,840 in productivity, according to Scott Peterson, a City Hall spokesman. Fire and police overtime cost another $5,199.
Each year there are hundreds of water main breaks, but the two back-to-back, high-profile ruptures highlighted concerns over the city's crumbling pipes.
"This is an old city with an aging infrastructure," Peterson said Tuesday, using an oft-repeated description of the century-old water pipes. "We are doing a lot of preventive measures to mitigate expensive water main breaks. We are replacing pipes that are about to break."
Such mitigation comes at a cost. Needed repairs are part of the reason for a 9 percent increase in water rates that Baltimore officials are expected to approve at a meeting this morning. The rate increase will increase average city water bills by an estimated $72 a year.
