City of Dublin makes repairs after broken water line floods street Saturday

When residents saw water flooding East Garner Street on a bright, hot sunny day, they knew something underneath the road had to have been the culprit.

A broken pipe turned out to be the issue Saturday afternoon, causing the city of Dublin’s water construction department to respond, remove the problem and fix it. Joanna Glover received a phone call from a resident down the street telling her about a flooded road in their neighborhood.

“I was looking out my window, looking at the sunny weather, and she’s talking about a flood,” Glover said.

Glover called Dublin City Councilman Bennie Jones and informed him about the flooded road. Within 10 minutes, she saw a city worker on scene trying to comprehend the situation.

“When I first saw it, I thought the road was going to cave in,” Glover said. “Water was going straight toward Decatur and running through Oconee Street.”

Jones contacted Tony Braziel with the city of Dublin, who sent out Leo Butts, Antwain Smith, Travis Dudley and Albert Padilla, with the city’s water construction department. 

“That was a lot of water going down that road when I got over there,” Jones said. 

The busted water pipe led to a small sinkhole, he said. 

“I was very pleased they got over there,” Jones said. “It was a Saturday evening, and they got right on it. They came over and made sure it was done and done right.”

The water was turned off for a short time to remove and replace the pipe. Glover thanked the city for responding and repairing the pipe quickly. 

“A big thumbs-up to our city workers and our Councilman Bennie Jones for getting on it,” she said. “Bennie stepped in there and helped. He made sure the residents were OK and he told them to be patient and they were going to take care of the problem.”

Workers were able to get things fixed and put some gravel over the hole. 

Many residents told Jones that they saw water leaking or bubbling up earlier that morning, but they did not know whom to call because it was a Saturday. The city has a My Dublin 311 App which allows anyone with a cell phone to immediately notify officials about problems they see. People can also call the emergency contact number, (478) 277-5050, which can be found on the city’s website when they click on the “Contact Us” icon.

“The main thing we want to tell citizens is if they see something, report it,” Jones said. “They need to know that they can call this number after hours. We have people on call that will handle situations. 

“Somebody is always on call, it doesn’t matter if it’s day or night. If something happens, we go out there and get it fixed.”