UPDATED: Fountain to Remain Closed Due to Water Line Break

UPDATE: Daphne Kirksey – New pipe is being installed and we are adding a new valve that will lessen impact on customers in the event of any future main breaks. We will have part of Fountain Ave closed from Belvoir Ave to Brookfield Ave. for a few days until the paving contractor can complete. Entrance to the Belvoir Christian Academy parking lot will be left open and principal has been made aware.

In the predawn hours of Tuesday, a water line burst at Brookfield and Fountain Avenues.

According to Tennessee American Water Company spokesperson Daphne Kirksey, crews were alerted at about 7:30 a.m. and were on their way to address the issue.

TAWC officials said workers closed Fountain Avenue between Belvoir Avenue and Hardin Street. A detour was established.

Casey Allen, Operations Superintendent for the company, said the six-inch water line should be repaired in four to six hours. However, the water has buckled the roadway adjacent to the pipe. Allen said that Fountain Avenue would remain closed for as many as two days to allow a paving contractor to repair the damaged road.

Kirksey said that workers have turned off one valve at Fountain Avenue feeding Brookfield Avenue so only a small number of customers should be impacted.

About Dick Cook

Dick Cook has lived in East Ridge since the Kennedy Administration when his parents bought a house on Marietta Street. Dick graduated from ERHS in 1976 before going on to the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga where he studied Political Science. Dick worked for the Chattanooga Free-Press and the Chattanooga Times Free Press for 22 years. Free-Press Sports Editor Roy Exum plucked him out of production in 1989 and gave him a job as a sports reporter. Dick covered everything from prep sports to the whitewater events on the Ocoee River for the 1996 Olympics. When Chattanooga's two paper's merged, he became the Crime Reporter covering both the Chattanooga Police and Fire Departments. He was among reporters who were honored by the Associated Press for the TFP's coverage of the 2002 fog-shrouded crash on I-75 in Catoosa County, Dick and his wife, Cathy, live on Marlboro Avenue where they are seen frequently chasing around their three grandsons.