ORANGE BEACH, Ala. — It was a good time for something bad to happen.

At least that’s the way Orange Beach Water Authority Superintendent Jeff White chose to look at it.

A pipe going under a canal on Jubilee Point burst right in the middle of the canal.

“We had a citizen come in and tell us there was water bubbling up in the canal, and there was,” he said. “The six-inch crossing going under the canal had blown apart. We had to turn it off and come up with a temporary solution to get water to the houses there on Jubilee because it’s a dead end line.”

That was the bad thing. The good thing was there was a boring crew in town already for other jobs and could quickly turn their attention to the Jubilee break. The break happened on Thursday and by Tuesday afternoon the new line was in.

“The same boring crew that did it is the same boring crew that was doing it for our contractor that’s upgrading Cove Drive,” White said. “They had finished their work with the contractor and had gone up to The Wharf and were doing some work up there and they were able to come right down.

“Very opportune time for a bad thing to happen. It just happened to come apart while they were there.”

There has been a lot of work on lines in the area lately and turning the water off and on several times may have prompted the break.

“It obviously had possible a small leak for a while and it got worse with the work we were doing down there,” White said. “Anytime you turn water lines on and off there’s a little bit of stress from water hammer. So it was on the verge of going and when we turned it off and on the other day it happened to go ahead and break at that time.”

White said the work involved putting in a cutoff valve on Marina Road and tying two other lines together to the new eight-inch line at Boggy Point.

While the new bore on Jubilee was being put in, water authority crews hooked up the water line to a hydrant on Marina Road for water service to the affected houses. The houses were without fire protection during the time it took to fix the break.