The water-line break Monday morning at West Colfax Avenue and Allison Street was the latest of several over the past few weeks to snarl traffic in the metro area.
The 20-inch main belongs to Consolidated Mutual Water in Lakewood, said Lakewood police spokesman Ty Countryman. Several lanes of Colfax Avenue from Wadsworth Boulevard to Allison Street were closed for about four-and-a-half hours, including rush hour.
Consolidated Mutual couldn’t be reached for comment.
Cold weather frequently causes breaks, Denver Water spokeswoman Stacy Chesney said. Denver Water workers have repaired 97 breaks since Dec. 1, she added.
“We have seen an increase in main breaks, mainly because of the weather,” she said. “When the ground freezes it can create more pressure on top of a pipe. If it’s old and has a weak spot, that can contribute to it breaking.”
On Jan. 9, a main break closed two of the three southbound lanes on North Peoria Street between East Montview Boulevard and East 17th Avenue in Aurora for the second time in 24 hours. That same day, traffic was stopped on Sherman Street between East 11th and 12th avenues in Denver.
In late December, a 16-inch main burst 25 feet below Colorado Boulevard near Interstate 70.
Age gets the blame sometimes.
Denver’s aging water-supply system malfunctions with increasing frequency, with 328 water-main and service-line ruptures recorded in 2008, up from 306 in 2007 and 256 in 2006.
Some pipes have carried water for 100 years. The one that broke on Colorado Boulevard goes back to 1951.
The reason for some breaks is harder to pin down than others. On Jan. 9, a 10-foot-by-15-foot stretch of Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard collapsed near Magnolia Street.
At the time, Denver Public Works spokeswoman Ann Williams said the sinkhole may have been connected to a nearby storm sewer.
Investigation determined that “the storm sewer line was clear, it wasn’t our sewer,” Williams said.
She said she doesn’t know what caused the collapse.
But Denver Public Works has begun work on Martin Luther King at Colorado Boulevard that will move east toward Quebec Street.
The work should eliminate any chance that a sinkhole will develop in the near future, Williams said. “There is some comfort in knowing it won’t happen again.”
Tom McGhee: 303-954-1671 or tmcghee@denverpost.com
