View Full Version : Water main break closes North Side streets


harvesterofsorrows
January 22nd, 2008, 04:37 PM
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-water-main_webjan23,1,293457.story

A 36-inch water main burst on Chicago's North Side overnight, collapsing part of a major street, partially submerging parked cars and rerouting CTA service. For a while, a virtual river ran through the middle of a popular neighborhood.

The 80-year-old cast-iron main burst about 1:30 a.m. near Montrose Avenue and Wolcott Street, forcing police to close a several square-block area. The CTA briefly shut down its Brown Line Montrose station and rerouted two area buses.

"It was a dramatic scene; that's a lot of water to come out of the pipe all at once," said Tom LaPorte, a spokesman for the city's Department of Water Management. "The deepest was about 4 feet of water."

Aaron W
January 24th, 2008, 10:22 AM
This is a huge hole! It's impressive to see from the Montrose brown line stop. They're lucky it happened next to the El instead of under it. Who knows what kind of structural damage it could have done. Fortunately the brand new Montrose station avoided major problems as well.