SYRACUSE, N.Y. (NCC News) – The city of Syracuse’s Department of Public Works is fixing several water main breaks across the city, including in downtown Syracuse, on Waverly Avenue near the Syracuse University campus, and on the North Side.
Some Syracuse residents were temporarily without drinking water. Crews seemingly finished work on 7th North Street on Syracuse’s North Side after last night’s break, which had impacted residents on Bellshire lane.
Construction crews worked until about 4:30PM on Waverly Avenue to get the water back up and running.
Residents in SU’s Watson Hall dormitory cannot drink the tap water, but can still shower and use the restrooms. Students now have to get bottled water for drinking.
“If it’s because this is such an old building, then the building needs to be renovated,” said Adriana Salazar, a resident advisor at Watson Hall.
“These kids can’t be going through this problem, paying $15,000 a year to have their water turned off”
Factors that usually cause water main breaks usually include the age of the pipes and extreme weather. Syracuse endured brutal -20 degree temperatures with wind chill last week.
Today, crews worked to fix the break from a few days ago on South Salina Street in downtown Syracuse.
The break has affected traffic on Waverly, closing the path to cars and changing bus routes. Around this time in previous years, Syracuse had as many as 55 water main breaks in a calendar year by the start of February, according to Syracuse city data.
One year by the end of July, the city had over 170, the same data says.
The Department of Public Works could not confirm the specific cause of the Syracuse breaks.
