City of Bainbridge workers are working hard to repair a section of Lake Douglas Road near Grace Christian Church and Academy after two water mains broke there on Saturday afternoon.

The pipes broke at about 2 p.m. Saturday, at the same time many people were at the school for a basketball tournament several private schools’ teams were taking part in.

Water began gushing onto the road and down Alice Street past the school, forcing Public Safety officers to begin detouring traffic until workers could arrive to shut off the water.

City Manager Chris Hobby said he estimated the pipes that broke could have been put underground as many as 85 to 100 years ago.

“With the weather we’ve had, with the ground freezing and un-freezing, it’s not unusual for [pipe] joints to break,” Hobby explained after Tuesday’s City Council meeting had concluded. “We think the six-inch main broke first, then the pressure from that caused the 10-inch main to burst.”

Repairs began almost immediately Saturday and continued overnight, with water restored to almost all the affected properties by Sunday morning, Hobby said.

The road had buckled in two places and a lot of water was lost, so repairs to the road haven’t happened quite as quickly, he said. The small part of Lake Douglas remains barricaded and impassable, although detours are marked. The road should be re-opened for traffic by Friday, but the patch of road won’t be re-paved until next week to give the dirt over the new piping a chance to settle, Hobby said.