On lots that tight, a leak is expensive to chase by digging. A pressurized line can leak underground for months before it shows. We trace the line, then listen along it with ground microphones to pinpoint the leak, so you open one hole instead of tearing up a driveway or a pool deck.
Ground Conditions in Fort Lauderdale
Fort Lauderdale is low and laced with tidal canals that reach far inland, and the U.S. Geological Survey notes that groundwater along this coast tracks sea level. Federal soil surveys show sandy soil over limestone across much of the city, with the water table about a foot down and rock at roughly 5 feet in many spots. A lot of the land along the water is fill, and some of it was laid over old organic muck.
That wet, salty ground is hard on buried pipe. Most of the city's big sewer lines went in during the 1960s and 70s and are iron, and between late 2019 and early 2020 breaks on that system spilled about 219 million gallons. For a locate, ground that's wet a foot down cuts how deep radar can see, so near the canals we lean on tracing for anything metal or wired and mark how confident we are in each line, so the crew knows where to slow down.
What’s Under the Streets in Fort Lauderdale
Fort Lauderdale runs its own water and sewer. The city's $690 million WaterWorks 2011 program moved most homes off septic and onto sewer, so a lot of the sewer pipe in town went in during the 2000s, next to water lines that are much older. Since 2018 the city has rebuilt more than 19 miles of water pipe, 17 miles of sewer pipe and 15 miles of stormwater pipe. A new water plant at Prospect Lake is replacing the roughly 70-year-old Fiveash plant, with about 4 miles of new 54-inch pipe to tie it in. FPL runs the power and Peoples Gas runs the gas.
In December 2019, a string of sewer main breaks spilled 126.9 million gallons into streets, parks and the Tarpon River, the biggest spill on record in Broward, and the state proposed nearly $1.8 million in fines. That's a big part of why so much of the city's pipe is being replaced now, and why there are so many crews in the ground. New mains next to old ones, and private lines next to both, is exactly the kind of site where you want everything marked before the first bucket goes in.
We cover Downtown and Flagler Village, Las Olas, Victoria Park, Rio Vista, Coral Ridge, the beach, and the commercial and industrial areas out by the airports and Port Everglades, plus nearby Wilton Manors, Oakland Park, and Lauderdale-by-the-Sea.
