Main Break at T-1156
Today around 6:00pm a water main broke at Target T-1156 in the electronics department (which is by far the best place for this to happen). The overhead main was shut off manually after thoroughly dousing the radios, land line phones, and a good portion of the video game areas.
Unfortunately, I did not have my phone/camera at the time so I have no pictures.
As an architecture student, I look at this as an opportunity to design stores and other buildings better to avoid mechanical failure and product loss.
It would appear, judging by the number of roof-insulating panels on the floor, that the main either exploded dislodging the panels or the main was on the outside of the insulation. Quite frankly, neither make sense because the panels I (thought I) saw go on the outside of the building. If I had more information about the nature of the building I could actually theorize what went wrong; but since I don't, I'll just leave it as a "water main break."
Moving on, how could this situation: a water main break above products, be avoided? The obvious thing is to not put piping over mission-critical areas, instead put these pipes over storage and employee only sections. In this case, if a water main break where to occur, customers would still be able to make purchases without being affected. This would protect floor merchandise (where a majority of products are actually stored) from damage but would still leave backrooms and employee areas at risk.
Instead, here is what I propose: use under-slab piping for all water pipes. This would protect merchandise and all backroom areas from potential damage. Additionally, to save cost, I would only use two pipes for all water actions; 1 cold water main and 1 return. In the places where hot water is required (washrooms, food areas, etc) I would use a tankless water heater. You would only need two or three and developers would save thousands of dollars in pipe installations.
If a buried water main were to break, it would cost a lot more to repair. However, the repair costs would likely be less than the damage to products which would be ruined.