Frustrated with water pipe breaks, Saugus DPW chief calls for new plumbing

SAUGUS-After fighting three water breaks in one day, frustrated Public Works Superintendent Joseph Attubato is wondering when is it going to end.Crews repaired water breaks in front of Fuddrucker’s, the Hess Gas Station and Kowloon Restaurant Thursday and, despite years of throwing money at breaks along the same section of 80 to 100-year-old pipeline, nothing is being done to replace the 6-inch main.”I don’t know when it’s going to be replaced,” he said. “It dates back probably to the 1920s and it’s costing the town a lot of money.”Town Manager Andrew Bisignani said it hasn’t been for lack of trying, however. Bisignani met with state officials and with Rep. Mark Falzone (D-Saugus) to try and get funding to replace the Route 1 waterlines to no avail.But, he added, the town has made some progress.Last year the town was able to switch over from a 6-inch line that runs under the passing lane to a 10-inch line that runs under the sidewalk along the upper part of Route 1. The 10-inch line, which runs approximately from Main Street to the Lynnfield town line, had been installed to feed fire hydrants.Attubato said there has not been a break in that portion of the line since the switch.”Mass Highway has also made some concessions and provided assistance when they could,” Bisignani said.One of those concessions is switching a route the state had for its own project to allow the town to catch a break.Bisignani said the state is opening up a trench on Route 1 south from the Lynnfield town line to the Lynn Fells Parkway and will allow the town to piggy back on the project by laying a new waterline at the same time.”It’ll save us a lot of money,” he said. “I think in the next year they’ll be ready to go.”Attubato said there have been fewer problems on the southbound side of the highway, largely because the businesses along that stretch are fed from waterlines that run along Main and Forest streets.It is the portion of line that runs northbound from Main Street to the Continental Restaurant that causes the bulk of the problems.When asked what it would take to get the line replaced Bisignani said, “a lot of money.”Attubato said he estimates the cost would be in the area of $1 million. The project would include abandoning the six-inch line that runs under the passing lane and installing a new line that hugs the sidewalk.He said the developer working near the Route 1 north McDonald’s has offered to offset an 800 or 900 foot portion of the waterline near his property, and new lines were put in when the Shops at Saugus were built.”So we are making some progress,” Bisignani said.Attubato, however, said the town still needs to do something about the rest of the line.”This is ridiculous and it’s costing the town money,” he said.