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Broken water main disrupts Clemmons
Businesses lose water, customers while repairs made in the cold
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Published: December 23, 2008
CLEMMONS
Temperatures in the teens are likely to have caused a water-main break on a busy Clemmons thoroughfare early yesterday.
Public-works director Larry Kirby said that low ground temperatures probably caused the break in a 12-inch iron-alloy pipe on Lewisville-Clemmons Road near Stoney Drive. The break allowed water to seep across the five-lane road, where it froze.
Officials closed the road between Brewer Avenue and Clemmons Road and shut off the water to businesses in the area as they worked to repair the pipe.
Officials had warned that the road could be closed until late afternoon, but one lane in each direction was opened before 10 a.m., Kirby said.
That was good news to Matthew Newman, who owns the Sonic Drive-In on Lewisville-Clemmons Road not far from where the break occurred. Many of his customers are factory workers in south Clemmons who use the road to get to his restaurant.
Water was restored and one lane of traffic in each direction was moving in front of the restaurant by 10 a.m., but the road was not packed with cars as it usually is, he said.
"It's way down," he said.
The road had not been reopened when Lorraine Dilley went to the Quik Lube on Lewisville-Clemmons Road, but she knew how to get there using back roads.
"If you didn't know what you were doing, it would be difficult," she said.
Maj. Brad Stanley of the Forsyth County Sheriff's Office said that the situation could have been worse if schools had been in session.
"We did have some things in our favor, but the wind and the cold was not in our favor," he said.
It was 18 degrees in Winston-Salem just before 7 a.m., according to the National Weather Service.
The road is one of the busiest in Clemmons -- it runs through the village's major shopping district and connects Clemmons commuters with Interstate 40.
More than 25,000 people use Lewisville-Clemmons Road in Clemmons daily, according to statistics from the N.C. Department of Transportation.
■ Paul Garber can be reached at 727-7327 or at pgarber@wsjournal.com.
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