Cost to repair water line break under US 60 in Tempe to be ‘significant,’ officials say

PHOENIX — It won’t be cheap to repair the water line break that happened under U.S. 60 in Tempe over the weekend, officials said.

Mark Weber, the city’s interim deputy municipal utilities director, didn’t provide an estimated repair total but with 8 million gallons of water lost, noted that cleanup and analysis of the incident would be tedious.

“It’s going to be significant,” Weber said Sunday during a press conference. “We still have a lot of work to do to determine how much it’s going to cost.”

Weber said the city would be the ones to foot the bill due to the lost water.

He added that the incident wouldn’t affect water rates for residents.

“We have plenty of supply and we’re in good shape,” Weber said.

The 24-inch water transmission line broke on Saturday, leading to flooding and the closure of the highway between Interstate 10 and the Loop 101.

The highway remained closed in both directions as of Monday afternoon with no estimated time for reopening.

Repairs on the 50-year-old pipe, which was supposed to last 75 years, started Sunday.

Randy Everett, central district administrator for the Arizona Department of Transportation, said Sunday the highway would be closed until it was safe for drivers.

“We will not be opening it up to the traveling public until we’re absolutely sure we’ve got safe conditions out there,” Everett said.

Drivers were asked to use the Loop 202 Santan Freeway in the south and the Loop 202 Red Mountain Freeway in the north to get around the closure.

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