More winter woes for stretched Ironwood budget

IRONWOOD - A section of Cloverland Drive was closed to traffic Thursday because of a main water line break near the intersection with Luxmore Street.

The Michigan Department of Transportation released information about the break and said travelers were detoured, beginning at 4 p.m.

Eastbound traffic on U.S. 2 was not detoured, while westbound traffic was detoured from Jackson Road to Lake Street. The detour covered about three-quarters of a mile.

Employees from the city of Ironwood worked on the water line break.

According to Bob Tervonen, utilities manager, the line broke Wednesday afternoon. He said a "large number" of valves were turned off, but as of Thursday morning, crews were unable to isolate the leak. Some fire hydrants along Cloverland Drive were opened to relieve water pressure, for crews to safely fix the leak once it was found.

"We can fix leaks when things are active, but with this, there is a lot of pressure," Tervonen said. "We wanted to make sure things were as safe as possible for someone to go in there and fix it."

Because of the break, some businesses had either low pressure or no water at all.

"Krist Oil and Burger King either had no water, or very little pressure," Tervonen said. "As for the Ironwood Commons, I'm pretty sure those businesses receive their water from Margaret and Roosevelt streets, so they would not have been affected."

According to an employee of the utilities department, crews may have to "chase" the leak down U.S. 2 to find the break.

As if the water line wasn't enough, the crews also had to worry about a possible foot or more of snow that was forecast through today.

"With the possible storm coming, the guys wanted to get this fixed before having to go out and plow," Tervonen said.