SAUGUS – Two Route 1 water breaks early Thursday morning and a third Thursday night, all in the northbound lane, tied up traffic and made for a slick roadway.Public Works Superintendent Joseph Attubato said the call for the first break came in around 11 p.m. Wednesday but it wasn’t until after midnight when workers finally set up in the 9-degree weather. Attubato said it was a 6-inch water main under the passing lane that let go near Fuddruckers, effectively shutting down two lanes of traffic.”I went by at 5 or 6 a.m. and traffic was backed up all the way to Revere,” he said.About three hours into the repair, Attubato said he received a call for a second water break near the Hess Station at Essex Street. That break, however, was closer to the curb and Attubato said workers remained mostly in the breakdown lane, causing less of an impact on traffic.The traffic backup, however, stretched well into Thursday.With the temperatures hovering well below freezing, Attubato said the men took turns warming up in the trucks.”A lot of them were so bundled up you didn’t know who you were talking to,” he said.By 9:30 p.m. Attubato was calling some of those same employees and sending them back out almost to the same spot, Route 1 north, this time closer to Kowloon Restaurant for a third water break.Attubato said he has no doubt the weather played a part in the breaks as did the time of day. He explained that pressure builds overnight when fewer people are using the waterlines.”It builds up and builds up until it hits its weakest point then it blows,” he said.Heavy truck traffic also plays a part wreaking havoc on the rocky fill under the roadway, eventually pressing on pipes, which leads to breaks.The wintry weather also creates dangerously icy conditions during water breaks.Attubato said the Highway Department kept a sander on hand, which periodically sanded over the swath of ice.”It was slick for quite a ways,” he added.With the pipes patched Attubato said his only concern was the trench left from the break near Fuddruckers.”We’ll wait until it settles a little and then get some regular hot top on it,” he said. “Right now it just has a cold patch.”Attubato said he had no idea how much the breaks would cost the town but it would be costly.”There’s no insurance to pay for this,” he said. “This comes right out of good old tax dollars.”