Dixmoor water main break repaired hours after flooding roads, closing schools

A water main break in Dixmoor, Illinois has been repaired hours after it flooded roads and forced school closures.

According to the village president, crews responded Thursday morning to a water main break at 146th and Seeley Avenue. 

Rosa L. Parks Middle School and Martin Luther King Elementary School were closed on Thursday because of the lack of water.   

Video from the scene showed slush and ice covering the street near the break. 

Dixmoor officials said around 4 p.m. that the break had been repaired. 

People who live in Dixmoor are fed up and frustrated, saying water main breaks are a consistent problem.

"When I was first moving here, I didn't know it was going to be like this," Jimmy Pratt said.

Two years ago, there was a water main break in the same location as the latest break.

"It's just ridiculous," Pratt said.

Dixmoor Village President Fitzgerald Roberts said a permanent fix is coming to 146th and Seeley soon.

"This particular block here is fixing to get a new water main put down, probably in a couple of months," he said.

Dixmoor has suffered from problems with its water infrastructure for years.

The serious water issues in Dixmoor were in the headlines as far back as 2021, after multiple main breaks resulted in boil orders, schools shutting down, and unreliable water pressure.

In September 2024, the village celebrated the completion of a $2 million project to install a new and larger water main in the village. But as Village President Fitzgerald Roberts explained at the time that the new main, funded by an expensive federal lifeline, was just an "artery," and the village still had to replace the "veins."

The $2 million price tag was just a drop in the bucket.

"We're probably looking at anywhere from about $40 to $50 million to kind of get it going a little bit more," Roberts said.

Officials said Parks Middle School and King Elementary School will reopen on Friday.