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City points to crumbling infrastructure after water main break at KCI airport

Posted at 6:57 PM, Jul 05, 2017
and last updated 2017-07-05 19:57:23-04

City officials say the infrastructure is continuing to fall apart underneath KCI airport. They say the water main break on the Fourth of July shows the need for something new. 

Around 6 p.m. Tuesday night a water main break forced Kansas City international airport to close down the bathrooms in Terminal B. 

By Wednesday morning, the water was still off as crews worked to repair the water main. 

Porta-potties were brought in as a temporary fix for passengers. 

Bill Biggerstaff arrived to fly out of the airport early this morning. He was surprised to see porta-potties sitting out front.

"My joke was 'this is their way of convincing us we need a new airport maybe,'" Biggerstaff said. 

Due to Fourth of July celebrations, porta-potties were not delivered until about 7 a.m. Wednesday morning. 

Passengers that needed to use the restroom on Tuesday night had to be shuttled to Terminal C to use the facilities. 

Airport officials say they're working with what they have.

“We have an aging infrastructure where the airport is pushing 50 years old," said Joe McBride, marketing manager for the airport. 

The city said the problem is not so much the age of the pipes, but when they were installed. 

"The pipes that were made out of that strong cast iron in the early part of the century -- those end up lasting sometimes longer that stuff that was in the middle of the 1900s," said Chris Hernandez, Kansas City communications director. 

Pipes installed in the 50s and 60s just aren't holding up, “because they switched to cheaper materials and that stuff is now breaking at the same rate as stuff that is older," Hernandez said. 

The water main break did not impact flight operations. 

Crews made a temporary fix Wednesday morning. They will return Wednesday night to work on a permanent fix.