A watermain break at The Plaza and 36th street tied up traffic Thursday morning and prompted 6NEWS to ask if the age of the pipes could have anything to do with the frequency of watermain breaks.

Neighbors in the vicinity of this latest break said it began around 4:30 p.m. Wednesday and some of them have been without water for more that 15 hours.

We spoke to Charlotte-Mecklenburg Utilities Department and they aid in the month of November they have repaired around 100 broken lines. They said that is a slow month for them. In their busiest months they can repair over 200 broken pipes.

They said Uptown has some of the oldest pipes in the County, some around 100 years old. A CMUD spokesperson said they often don’t know why a pipe breaks, but age is not necessarily a reason. They said they are spending around $10 million to treat old pipes to expand their usefulness by decades.

Find out what CMUD is doing to help keep water running in a live report on 6NEWS starting at 4:30 p.m.