Saugus water main break backs up Route 1 traffic

SAUGUS – Traffic on Route 1 north was backed up into Revere and several businesses and residents went without water for the majority of the day Thursday following a massive water main break in Saugus.DPW Director Joe Attubato said a portion of the water main in front of McDonalds burst around 5 a.m. Thursday, creating a huge problem for his workers and the thousands of people who rely on that road to get to and from work every day.Town employees worked throughout the day to remove and replace the broken main, restoring water service to the area by late afternoon.Traffic remained backed up for some time after, however, as the town was left with the daunting task of repairing the 10-foot section of road that was removed to get to the pipe.”The call came in about 5 a.m. that the pipe was broken in two places,” said Attubato. “From what I witnessed, it looked like it could have been because they used some bad materials when they first put it in, there are a lot of rocks – big rocks, small rocks – in there and then you’ve got all of that traffic going over it all day. Over time it just started to break.”The break was the second to plague the Route 1 area this month, as Attubato and his crew were forced to battle a similar situation on the south-bound side of the highway near Dunkin’ Donuts on Aug. 6.