Milwaukee water main break, floods parts of underground steam system

Milwaukee water main break, floods parts of underground steam system (Credit: Parker Gayan)

MILWAUKEE - A large city of Milwaukee water main broke overnight in downtown Milwaukee, flooding parts of a We Energies underground steam system.

According to Milwaukee Water Works, a system operator reported the possible break around 9:15 p.m. Monday in the area of Wisconsin and Broadway. Minutes later, a bridge operator saw water surfacing in the intersection of Wisconsin and Water.

Crews responded immediately, Milwaukee Water Works said, and manually shut down valves surrounding the break – isolating it by 11:20 p.m. The break was in a main that runs north-south under Broadway, approximately 25 feet from a nearby fire hydrant.

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The Water main that broke was installed in 1884 and is 12 inches in diameter. The cause of the failure is not yet known.

The break, and the impact on the underground steam system, impacted heat service to Milwaukee's City Hall complex and other properties east of the Milwaukee River downtown.

Milwaukee water main break, floods parts of underground steam system (Credit: Parker Gayan)

A We Energies spokesperson indicated, for safety reasons, they shut down a portion of the steam system early Tuesday morning, Nov. 23; customers east of the Milwaukee River had low or no steam service.

No drinking water customers were impacted by the water main break, Milwaukee Water Works said.

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The city of Milwaukee began pumping millions of gallons of water out of the system once it was isolated. Once the water is cleared, We Energies will inspect the steam tunnels and equipment and start to restore service.

Due to the location of the break, Milwaukee Water Works will be working with the city's Streetcar Operations to develop an action plan for safe continued operation of The Hop in the future.

Statement from Water Works Superintendent Karen Dettmer:

"I want to commend our Water Plants operations staff who observed an increased demand in the downtown area and immediately notified our control center, the DPW personnel who put eyes on the water surfacing in the street to identify the precise location, and our Water Distribution personnel that set to work within minutes to evaluate the issue and stop the leak."

A We Energies spokesman issued this statement Tuesday night:

"We are working as quickly and safely as possible to restore steam service to customers after a large city of Milwaukee water main break flooded portions of the downtown steam system.

Millions of gallons of water from the city’s broken main flooded into the steam tunnels for nearly 17 hours, finally stopping at approximately two this afternoon.

We hope to have the water clear from the tunnels before midnight. Once the tunnels cool and are safe to enter, we will be able to fully assess any damage to our equipment.

We will continue working overnight and into the early morning hours to restore service to all customers.

We know it is frustrating to be without steam service and we thank our customers for your patience."

Statement from Brendan Conway with WEC Energy Group:

"Our steam system serving downtown Milwaukee was inundated with millions of gallons of flooding over the course of 17 hours caused by a city of Milwaukee water main break from Monday night to approximately 2 p.m. Tuesday afternoon.

Our crews worked through the night to restore service; however, regrettably, we discovered damage to a critical part of our network.

Urgent repair work is underway. We now expect full restoration of service to customers by early evening. We appreciate the patience of our customers as we work quickly and safely to address this issue."

Officials say this has not affected electric and natural gas service.

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