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WEST JORDAN — A major water line broke near Bangerter Highway Monday, sending one man to the hospital, flooding five homes and shutting down 16 blocks to traffic.
Crews from the Jordan Valley Water Conservancy District were in a vault beneath the highway working to replace a meter on the Jordan aqueduct. About 10:30 a.m., a turnout joint to the metering station failed, spilling high volumes of pressurized water, according to district spokeswoman Linda Townes.
One man was on the street and two men were in the vault when the joint broke. One of the men in the vault was able to climb out, but the other was momentarily trapped before being "washed out," Townes said. He was taken to FirstMed medical facility for observation after inhaling water and for "cuts and bruises," but was not seriously injured, she said.
Five homes nearby were being evaluated for flood damage. Traffic was shut down from 6200 South to 7800 South as crews with the conservancy district and the Utah Department of Transportation worked to shut down the pipeline and clean up debris.
Townes said there was "some undercutting" caused by the leak, though the damage did not appear to be extensive.
Townes revised earlier estimates, saying about 250,000 gallons of water were lost in about 30 minutes before the pipeline was shut off. The pipeline conducts about 12 million gallons of water per day.
Craig Jacobs was driving west on 7200 South when he saw the workers escape the water spill.
"I saw this guy pop out of the water," Jacobs said. "A great big billow of water came out, like something at Raging Waters. And then they started just kind of hugging each other, like all three of them got out OK. … If they would have stayed in the hole or got caught in the hole, they would have drowned for sure because it was a tremendous amount of water coming up."
Contributing: Mike Anderson
