CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — The past has stuck around longer than it should here in the Coastal Bend. And because of that we are feeling the consequences of old school infrastructure.
"They're old yeah. Some of them go back 100 years believe it or not. We have some that are still made out of brick, kind of handmade with brick. We are behind a little bit but over the past five years we've been catching up" said Corpus Christi City Manager Peter Zanoni.
Just not quite faster than Mother Nature, which is also to blame for the unexpected turn of events.
"Of course we can't alleviate every break. The weather has a lot to do with that as the soils dry, it causes shifting in the pipes. Even a new pipe could have some type of a crack or break due to shifting soils due to moisture content evaporating" said Zanoni.
Although the repairs were done by Corpus Christi Water, local fire fighters at station one still had to be in the loop for emergency purposes due to the nearby fire hydrant being shut off.
"Should there be any incidents in that area, it's already known, and they can have plans to grab a fire hydrant. It may be a little bit more away, but now that we know about it, we can make plans on any responses that we would make" said Corpus Christi Fire Chief Brandon Wade.
According to engineers working on the incident, water pressure was lower than normal for area businesses at that time. But some said they didn't see much change in their work day.
"It really hasn't impacted my business. But it affected a little bit on the traffic side" said Ricardo Longoria, Owner of Rico's Barber Studio.
City Manager Peter Zanoni also mentioned that due to the outdated city infrastructure, more money is needed to make these mandatory repairs. 5 million dollars was the previous price tag to make the fixes in past years but the new budget price tag blows that out of the water.
"By having a more robust replacement program, in the neighborhood of 30 million, we'll be able to address those sooner and not have those types of breaks" said Zanoni.
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