Repeated Western Springs Main Breaks In Bitter Cold

WESTERN SPRINGS, IL – Western Springs crews are braving the bitter cold to fix repeated water main breaks in town.

Overnight Wednesday, the village released a photo on Facebook of the effort to repair a break at 47th Street and Gilbert Avenue.

The village described the conditions as difficult, with equipment that can freeze up.

A year ago Thursday, Patch wrote a story about a spate of breaks in Western Springs in near-zero-degree weather.

In all of 2024, the village reported 74 main breaks, a big increase from the 34 in 2020, officials said at the time.

At this week's Village Board meeting, officials did not give the 2025 number. But Village President Heidi Rudolph saluted public works employees laboring in the cold.

"Nobody wants to be outside to walk their dog, speaking personally," she said. "I'm sorry when I see the water main breaks, knowing that the folks who are already doing long hours ... deal with water main breaks."

In the last month, the village has issued four public alerts about water main breaks – 50th Place (Jan. 15), Hillgrove and Franklin avenues (Jan. 23), 51st Street and Harvey Avenue (Jan. 25), and 47th and Gilbert (Jan. 28).

Jan. 23 was the coldest day so far this winter, with temperatures feeling more than 20 degrees below zero

Officials have said more than half the local breaks are on water mains that were installed before 1940.

Last year, voters passed a $45 million referendum that was meant, in large part, to fix the village's aging water system.