LEWISTON – Crews on Monday uncovered a 130-year-old water main blamed for a massive leak that threatened to bleed the city’s water system dry over the weekend.

Repairs to the cast-iron pipe should begin today and should be finished sometime Wednesday, according to Dave Jones, city public services director.

“It all depends on what we find when we’re done there,” he said. The pipe was buried in 1875 and has not been dug up in years.

“For being more than 130 years old, it doesn’t look at all that bad,” he said.

Jones said the 24-inch main was one of the main feeds to the city water system. A smaller, four-inch pipe had been connected to the main originally but it had been capped several years ago. Jones said the cap broke off last week, causing the leak.

Crews located the leak on Saturday afternoon after a frantic two-day search. It was pouring 3,500 gallons of water per minute into the Androscoggin River at one point, according to estimates.

The water department noticed the problem about 3 a.m. Friday. The water in the city’s reservoir tanks on Webber Avenue should have been about 25 feet deep. It was only 6 feet deep, however, and pumps used to refill the tank had no affect.

City crews fanned out across the city searching for the leak all day Friday and Saturday morning. Finally, City Street Superintendent Denis Caron noticed melted ice in the river north of Island Avenue. That’s a dead-end road just north of Espo’s Trattoria on Main Street. The leak was pouring city water into the Androscoggin River, beneath the river’s ice.

City crews had water service detoured around the broken main by 3 p.m. Espo’s Trattoria and Dostie Jewelers had water service cut. Jones said the city supplied a temporary line to customers during repairs.