On 06/03/2018 09:13, Tim Streater wrote:
In article , Brian Gaff
wrote:

No its corporate amnesia. In the old days the experienced people in
charge, knowing the lack of maintenance over the years would get in
extra staff when a big freeze was followed by a big thaw, and there
would be people on the ground to fix it asap.

It has been so long since a big thaw that most have moved on. The
corporate memory has been lost in early retirement/redundancies.

However since experience costs money, we are now in the as and when
needed type of employment and the knowledgeable people all went some
years back.
Thus you get a sudden demand due to lots of leaks springing up.
If of course the pipes had been regularly checked andÂ* made good a lot
of this could be avoided.

You mean dig the road up just to inspect the water pipe?

The old technique was a sort of pole which the old guy who checked such
things put his ear to and behaved pretty much like a stethoscope. You
can hear leaks and free running water underground with such a device.

These days I expect they do it with headphones and an acoustic sensor if
they bother to do it at all. Noisiest spot usually above the leak (and
certainly above the place where water is falling the furthest).

Hell of a lot of potholes on the roads too now that the snow has
cleared. All the bodge it and scarper "repairs" from last summer have
lifted from ice expansion and been pulverised by passing snowploughs.

--
Regards,
Martin Brown