Downtown water main break repaired; service restored

The leak resulted from the hole in Fidelity's portfolio. Neanderthal Ned Johnson blames the mess on the reincarnation of FDR in the form of Barack Obama.

C.Ponzi

1 Guy working and 7 Guys just standing around, what gives. Got a love those hight paying union jobs

Aram B., a photo gallery posted on-line with seven (7!) pictures of a water main break that leaks "thousands of gallons", but no water leak in sight. What gives?

Does anyone see anything wrong with this picture?? 8 guys standing with their hands in their pockets watching 1 guy working.. If the city is looking for ways to save money, here are 8 unnecessary salaries that can be cut that no one would notice.

How about the fact that Boston's water infrastructure is close to or surpassing 100 years old, with no plans to upgrade the system as a whole... Until we get a comprehensive replacement plan into place, we'll continue to piecemeal the system upgrades forever...

Hmm... Looks like 1 guy working and 7 watching. Welcome to Taxachusetts!!

Typical...One works while the others supervise. Maybe this waste of resources has something to do with the financial situation.

Count them! Not 1, not 2, not 3 but 8 people doing nothing in the photo!

what a picture...one guy working 7 guys watching with thier hands in their pockets...geez

hey Mr. Menino. The next time you're wondering why the city's over-budget and why we can't afford to buy a new fire engine or two, take a look at this picture.

One guy working, seven guys standing around with their hands in their pockets. What a disgrace.

1 person working, 10 watching...YUP, city job.

Did anyone else notice in EVERY wide-shot photo there are at least 2-3 city employees standing around GETTING PAID TO DO NOTHING!?!?

HEELLOOOO BUDGET DEFICIT!!!!

How many workers does it take to watch 1 worker actually work?
This picture answers 7!!
And people wonder why the economy needs a bailout??

The 'shovel ready' stimulus package monay cannot come fast enough. Every year the breaks get bigger and the problems get worse. This is what happens when a society is more worried about big-screen televisions than what happens when they flush the toilet.

Love the picture! Must be 7 supervisors watching the 1 worker in the hole! Tax $ at work!

Can we get a few more workers to stand around and admire a hole in the ground? They are probably on the state payroll, and collecting at least time and a half for going to work at such an early hour.

Look at these photos!!! One guy working and eight standing around with their hands in pockets - over and over and over in every picture! Our tax dollars hard at work once again in the great city of Boston!!!

Charles-
Nice comment.. Made me actually smile for a second. No, that is the hole that Bob Reynolds and Ellyn Mccolgan left when they left the firm.

This picture defines water and sewer....one guy in a hole with a shovel and seven "supervising"

1 guy digging, 7 guys watching. I'm so happy to be paying for this kind of production.

Pictures: lots of workers standing around watching the hole, as if it would close by magic. So Boston

the photo says it all - 1 guy in the hole working and 7 guys standing around watching - you gotta love those city workers! no economic hard times for them - its Overtime Baby!

This picture is priceless. SEVEN guys standing around while only 1 is actually working. (2 included the backhoe operator) Rumor has it there was an eighth guy standing but you cant see him because he is off getting the coffee and donuts.

Not that it matters to labor bashers, but often when there is a service outage, all affected utilities send people out to make sure repairs don't damage their conduits.

A number of those standing around are probably utility workers from the gas, electric, telecom, and steam utilities. It's not their responsibility to work on a city water problem, but they'll be there to monitor the situation.

You probably also have a couple of white collar engineers and managers there, too. Boston has a complex utility infrastructure and one outage can swiftly affect many other services.

Raoul, good observation. I see 3-4 water and sewer workers (at least one to watch operator from hitting another utility), a gas co. supervisor talking to a gas co. serviceman, probably assessing the immediate chance of a broken main due to encroachment (look it up), Probably 2 N star workers assessing the chance of an electrical disruption or incidental damage, and 1 nosey pedestrian.

I put myself through school working construction and repairing water mains is not a piece of cake by any means. Repairing sewer lines are even worse because they run deeper, not too mention the smell.

The one laborer is in the hole blowing out gravel around conduits so the backhoe operator can gently dig without hitting any other utilities. It would be unsafe and asinine to have more people in the trench.

At least two of the people in the photo are from other utility companies judging by the colors. To get water service restored by 12:30 (if that's true) is actually pretty impressive.

All you guys are complaining about the men standing around:
They'll just say that they're there in case the job gets bigger.
Then they've got all the people they need in one spot
and in a sense they are right because they can't
see what the severity of the break.
Makes for a bad picture, but there's logic behind it.

In response to a few of the comments:
I was not present for this repair, but the timing of the photograph was again impeccable, as Raoul stated, it is likely that some of the folks standing around are from other utilities. It also appears that the man in the hole is holding a blow-tube, which means, the backhoe is currently doing all the work.

Those with concerns about our infrastructure that needs to be repaired "as a whole" should take a look into past and present Capital Improvements being performed by the Commission. Replacement as a whole would be financially and logistically impossible. Without considering that every road in the city would be effected, the material cost alone would be in the hundreds of millions to replace the approximately 1000 miles of water main, 35000 valves and 13000 hydrants that are presently is in operation across our fine city.

I am biased, but in my fairly educated opinion, when compared with the rest of the country, we are blessed with our water and sewer systems.

I would just like to say that i'm the guy in the hole. when a water main break occurs, you start off with one person doing what i was doing. that was blowing the dirt and debris off the old pipe. what every one does not realize is that was a total team effort. what the pictures do not show is that it took 4 guys to put that pipe together. every one chipped in big time yesterday. we had the pipe in the ground amd the water on by 11:00 am. that is outstanding . there were many utilities in the ground that can hamper a repair. we made it happen and all was good.

Leave those city workers alone! They are too doing something. They're playing with whatever is in those pockets!