If the weather and water main breaks keep up, the Town of Colonie could top 100 broken water pipes by the end of the month. Geoff Redick has more from the most recent break on Rosendale Road.

COLONIE, N.Y. — When politicians talk about "repairing roads and bridges," most of us never think about what is under those roads. That is where our most critical infrastructure lies: some electrical conduit, and most sewer pipes and water mains.

That sort of infrastructure is far more susceptible, when temperatures plunge to record lows.

"We're probably running about 20-percent higher than we normally do (with the frequency of water main breaks)," Colonie's DPW Commissioner Jack Cunningham said Thursday. "We're over 90 now in the Town of Colonie. We haven't really had a chance to look at it and see what the heck's going on."

So many water mains have burst, that Colonie is now working with its second jackhammer; the first one broke under the duress of so much work. DPW crewmen are feeling the fatigue, too.

"They're working nights and weekends," said Cunningham. "This last weekend was really tough on the guys. We've got some tired workers right now."

The problem for Colonie is two-fold: most notably, the town itself covers 57 square miles, and its water district is even larger (Thursday's water main break was actually located in the Town of Niskayuna, but falls under Colonie's water jurisdiction). The sheer size of the town leads to the higher number of bursts.

"Also, the cold has a huge impact," Cunningham said. "The frostline is deeper than we normally see. We put our water pipes at least five feet underground to keep them away from the frost, but this year the frost has actually gotten down into the area where our pipes are."

Even with close to 100 breaks, very few homes and businesses have lost water service in the new year, according to town supervisor Paula Mahan. There has only been one brief boil water advisory, which was several weeks ago.

The greater impact has been on the town's budget. In less than two months, the extra work has already forced the town to spend $35,000 of its 2015 overtime budget on water main repairs.

Mahan said the extra work highlights the reasons Colonie adopted a ten-year infrastructure repair plan, which began this year.

"This is our year of bricks and mortar," Mahan said Thursday. "All our focus is on infrastructure."

The plan includes repair and replacement projects on the water mains, as well as replacing old tanks and pumping stations. Some of the projects are budgeted to exceed $1-million.