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Sydney Cromwell
Water main break on Valley Avenue
Police and BWWB crew survey the main outflow of a broken water pipeline at Valley Avenue.
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Sydney Cromwell
Water main break on Valley Avenue
Police block off Valley Avenue after a pipeline break, which has sent water into the property near Homewood Middle.
Part of Valley Avenue was closed off Monday night after a break in a water main started spewing water near Homewood Middle School.
Police officers were rerouting traffic as of 10 p.m., but work to repair the water line was only just beginning. Water was quickly collecting on the south side of Valley Avenue, just east of the school. Birmingham Water Works Board employees on the scene said they were not sure what had caused the break in the line, nor how long it would take to repair.
Tuesday morning, Valley Avenue had been reopened but repair work was still ongoing. Homewood City Schools representative Merrick Wilson said HMS had normal operating hours.
The pipeline break is particularly poorly-timed given the county's increasingly severe drought protocols, and the drought warning the Homewood City Council had issued only a few hours before at its Oct. 24 meeting.
A BWWB spokesperson could not be reached, but an automated message on the customer service line said outages were being reported in the immediate area around Mecca Avenue.