Pipe freeze repair procedure video

When water lines leak or break due to temperatures, soil conditions, or age, residents experience unpleasant and inconvenient impacts. The Public Works staff strives to find ways to reduce water outage impacts to Lafayette customers. Crews are utilizing a beneficial process to isolate service line breaks, freeze the line, and perform repairs without having to drain lines and turn off water service to extended numbers of homes.
One water main line can serve hundreds of residents. This process freezes the area on the service side of a break with pressurized nitrogen, allowing crews to concentrate just on the problem area. This reduces the need to shut off a lengthy stretch of pipeline and lessens the impact to hundreds of customers.