Drastic temperature shift blamed for rash of water main breaks

Nearly a dozen water main breaks were reported across New Jersey Sunday, and the sudden shift in temperatures is being blamed.
Temperatures went from zero to 60 and then back down to 15 degrees in the span of about 48 hours, and the drastic swings of freezing and thawing proved to be too much for some water main systems to handle.
In Newark, crew responded to a break on Route 21 near Raymond Boulevard.
And in Morristown, an entire apartment complex was left without clean water thanks to a break on West Valley View Drive.
A break that happened overnight on Route 27 in Edison forced lane closures for most of the day Sunday as crews dug into the street to make repairs to the fractured 8-inch line. The frigid temperatures turned standing water to ice, and crews had to put down salt to keep the road open.
Elsewhere in Middlesex County, a break caused lane closures on Route 26 in North Brunswick, where gushing water coated mailboxes and the sidewalk with ice.
Other water main breaks were reported in Point Pleasant and Parsippany.