The waterline break on the main campus at Kaskaskia College has been located and fixed.
As a result, College President George Evans says the main campus will reopen and classes will be held as scheduled on Thursday.
“It ended up being about a six to eight-inch hole in one of our eight-inch water main lines. Without getting too technical, the college runs on a giant loop of eight-inch water mains that feed the entire institution. This was at a critical juncture and as a result of the break we lost water service to about 80 percent of our buildings.”
Evans says the leak was discovered around 5:30 Tuesday afternoon when water began shooting out of the ground on the fitness trail near the Administration building. He reports the cause of the break is still unclear.
“It is a unique area. We don’t think it was disturbed by any construction because there is no construction ongoing in this area whatsoever. It was approximately 12 feet deep. Right now our hypothesis is it is a 50-year-old pipe and the ground does shift.”
Evans says they had multiple contractors that helped locate and fix the break. A 12-foot-deep trench was dug to try and locate the problem.
