A significant boil water advisory has been avoided as city crews attempt to fix a water valve on the north end of the 9th Avenue Bridge.  The valve broke as part of the water main project that's happening on the 800 block of High Street and you may have heard that the work was supposed to start Monday morning on making the repair.

But as crews got on site to start the work City Engineer Josh Mickelborough says they ran some test models and realized the wide spread impact of shutting down that water line.

"It's like our road network, you can tell that there are very few connections to South Hill between north and south of the tracks. Our water system is the same way." said Mickelborough. "We had a failure and a break at the South Hill reservoir and that would have normally been able to provide for it."

But with the reservoir down and then a need to shut off the 9th Avenue water line, thousands of people would have been put on a boil water advisory due to the drop in pressure.  Mickelborough says the only water to the area would have been coming from the eastern half of South Hill and their wouldn't have been sufficient supply to keep the pressure up, resulting in a boil water advisory.

As staff realized the extent of shutting down the valve, they explored every option that they could think of and ended up discovering an old, forgotten about valve that would re-direct water allowing for the work to happen. The valve was installed back in the early 80s and had likely never been used.

While the work can now occur, there are detours in place, so if possible try to avoid the corner of 9th and High Street West until Wednesday evening when the work should be done.