Not that I disagree with your post, but how do you know who is paying for this? Or other than a contractor making a hole in the pipe, know where the fault is? I didn't see that in the article.  It could have been incorrectly marked, placing the "blame" on the water company for not marking it correctly or like you said, could be the contractors fault for digging too deep or where they shouldn't have been digging. Addind to the complexity is that water pipe are generally no concrete anymore, making identification tougher for the equipment operator. I have no skin in this either way other than it messes my drive up.