AUBURN – Workers completed repairs Thursday to the single pipe that transports water from Lake Auburn to the city of Lewiston.

About 10 members of the Lewiston Public Services crew worked through the night to fix the 2-foot-wide water main, which broke about 5 p.m. Wednesday beneath Center Street.

The break forced the closure of the four-lane road temporarily, then two lanes were reopened until repairs were finished.

“We don’t know what caused it to break,” said David Jones, Lewiston Public Services director. Perhaps the ground merely shifted, he said.

Though the pipe was installed just after the Civil War in 1870, it was fairly solid, Jones said.

“The steel is in pretty good shape, even right at the break,” he said.

It’s a relief, since the pipe carries all of the public water used in Lewiston, about 4 million gallons each day.

When it broke, however, there was little interruption to customers.

“People might have seen a little less pressure, but that’s it,” Jones said.

While the line was down, water was supplied to homes and businesses by four reservoirs, two on Webber Avenue and two more on Ferry Road.

At the time of the breaks, the tanks held about two days’ worth of water.

The situation was further aided by the rapidly cooling temperatures, Jones said. Had the break occurred earlier Wednesday, when temperatures were in the mid-90s and demand was high, more of the reserves would have been used.

It also would have been even tougher on the workers who were forced to dig into the ground to fix the pipe.

As it was, they had it tough.

Most were almost finished with work for the day when the break occurred. Instead, they were forced to work for almost 24 hours straight.

“They worked right through the night until morning,” Jones said.

By morning, gravel had refilled the hole and all four lanes of the the busy street had reopened.

The pavement at the site, near 181 Center St., will be patched in the next week or so, Jones said.

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