BILLINGS — Construction began on a broken water line at the intersection of Central Avenue and 32nd Street Tuesday, which nearby business owners said had been creating icy and slick roads.
The city of Billings said they first received a call about the broken line on Friday, when much of their staff was off the clock.
Business owners in the area of the break such as Dan Clevidence, who owns Farmers Insurance, said it had created a bit of a hazard at the intersection. Clevidence first noticed it when he returned to his office on Monday.
"Really, it was kind of business as normal, until we kind of noticed a lot of spinning wheels and things like that," Clevidence said. "There was ice on the road for sure. Some of which was from past weather, but it definitely wasn't helping."
Clevidence said the conditions of the road made him anxious, as that intersection is usually quite busy.
"Concerning for sure," Clevidence said. "And it was a little of 'I'm sure this has been reported, but how do I know if it's been reported?'"
Clevidence said he and other businesses in the area were curious about when construction on the project would begin, but Superintendent for Distribution and Collections Scott Emerick explained that delays on projects like this one are standard.
"We knew about it that we had a leak out there," Emerick said. "We just had to get things scheduled."
Emerick said those delays stem from his department hoping to impact as few people or businesses as possible. In some of these fixes, the central water is shut off for nearby businesses.
"In case we have to shut the water down, we had to coordinate efforts so that if we did have to, we weren't really impacting their business that much," Emerick said. "Plus, we always hope to maintain traffic control so that both the drivers and our employees are safe."
And even though the break led to slick roads, Emerick said the break itself was minimal. His department always has an on-call unit for bigger emergencies and in this case, the break did not qualify.
"You're trying to juggle all of those things in there to get the work done and be least impactful on the community," Emerick said.
Emerick said the project is expected to be wrapped up and finished Tuesday evening, with life hoping to be back to normal — much to the satisfaction of people like Clevidence.
"We appreciate those guys for jumping on it and getting it done," Clevidence said. "It's nice to be able to trust the city with this stuff."
