Steve Winns scours city’s underbelly looking for trouble
Utility maintenance team leader keeps water flowing through underground network
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| Steve Winns, right, supervises pumping operations to clear flooding before replacing a broken water main. Photo by Alvin Wright |
Story by John Perry
He’s always looking for trouble. And it never takes long to find it.
Steve Winns’ day starts at 6 a.m. when he reports to Public Works & Engineering’s Northwest Quadrant Utilities Service Center.
There’s already a service request on the computer printout. A Code 16 has been reported: a major water-main break threatening to flood an entire city block.
“That means it’s high priority,” said Winns, a PWE utility maintenance team leader. “We need to go ASAP.”
Winns checks the six-wheeled Chevrolet 8500 flatbed, making sure the maintenance repair truck is in good working order and loaded with the right equipment.
This job requires a backhoe. As a trained heavy-equipment operator, Winns will drive the truck and then work the backhoe on the job site.
His maintenance team, Crew No. 1116, Sebastian Dade, Shane Ellis and Robert Maxwell, is already on the truck and ready to roll.
“Had the same crew for three years. They’re the best in the section,” Winns said. “Wouldn’t trade ’em for all the tea in China.”
Evidence of the broken water-main comes into view upon arriving at 11200 Olympia near Kirkwood and Briar Forest.
“Water is blowing everywhere. We got streets and sidewalks flooding,” Winns tells his crew.
Wearing the requisite hardhats and high-visibility safety vests, the crew is out of the truck as soon as it comes to a complete stop. They quickly mark the area with orange PWE cones.
Winns surveys the damage caused by the water main and decides they’ll have to break concrete to replace about 15 feet of broken pipe.
The crew trusts his judgment.
“Steve knows what he’s doing. We’ve got complete confidence in him,” Dade said.
Steve Winns checks a street infrastructure map to locate water shut-off valves to stop flooding caused by a water-main break.
Photo by John Perry |
Winns decides which valves will have to be closed.
“That determines how many people will lose their water,” Winns said.
Six valves will be shut down. Winns and crew walk the block, ringing doorbells and notifying residents and business owners that they are about to lose their water.
PWE dispatchers contact the Texas One Call System, a computerized notification center that establishes a communication link between those excavators making repairs and those who own or operate underground facilities.
The call center dispatches a crew to locate and mark underground utilities with small, color-coded flags: red for electrical lines; yellow for gas, oil, or steam lines; blue for drinking water; green for sewer lines; or orange for communication cables.
After flag placement, Winns excavates with the backhoe. Digging and repairing valves will take most of the work time.
“We’ll definitely get it fixed. I’ve never run across one yet we couldn’t fix,” said Winns, with the maintenance section since 2002.
By now, a PWE valve team has arrived and shut off the water supply.
A pavement breaker, a hand-held digging device operated perpendicular to the ground, is used to chip away a 6-foot-by 5-foot chunk of concrete.
The water is pumped out and the broken water main replaced with new pipe and a new 4-inch water valve.
A PWE dump truck delivers 36 yards of lime rock to temporarily patch the broken street and curb until replacement pavement can be poured.
Winns makes sure all the valves are turned back on.
From start to finish, the job took 19 hours.
“Whether it takes all day and all night, I don’t go home until the job is repaired and customers have their water restored,” Winns said. “People pay water bills. Our job is to make sure it’s flowing for them.”
His supervisor appreciates the dedication.
“When there’s a broken water-main flooding a street or tearing up somebody’s yard, Steve’s the one I count on,” said Harold Tate, maintenance section chief at the 5900 Teague Road service center. “He’s a go-getter who gets the job done.”
Winns, a father of two, is happy in his work.
“I love being outside, dealing with the people, and representing Public Works,” he said with a grin. “Wouldn’t want to be anywhere else.”
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