Water main built in 1896 bursts in Times Square disrupting subway service
Aug. 29 (UPI) -- A water main burst early Tuesday in New York City's Times Square causing road closures and major subway disruptions.
Video posted online shows water pouring into the Seventh Ave. subway station as Power was shut down and 1, 2, 3 train service was gravely disrupted, as was 5 train service.
New York City Department of Environmental Protection Commissioner Rohit Aggarwala said city workers were clearing the tracks and trying to determine the cause of the water main's failure.
"While this intersection will probably remain closed for the rest of the day while we continue with the excavation and complete the repair it is limited to this one intersection at this point. The main impact of course has been on the subways because the water main is above the subway station here and so for that hour and a half or so where the water was running the water was running into the subway station," said Aggarwala.
Aggarwala said the water main was more than a century old.
"The water main was from 1896, it's a 20-inch main, so it's a pretty big, high pressure water main. We do not know the cause. We will know that after we identify the leak cut out the section of pipe and do some forensic analysis," said Aggarwala.
Aggarwala also emphasized that old infrastructure is not inherently prone to failure.
"Aging infrastructure is not always bad, they built stuff to last 100 some odd years ago and it did its job for 125 years right, that's pretty good," Aggarwala said.
New York City Transit President Richard Davey emphasized that the flooding from the burst water main had affected multiple stations.
"We've had severe impacts this morning on the 1, 2 and 3 lines in large part because the water has seeped through here at Times Square and actually moved to its lowest point which turns out to be south. So right now, we're in particular experiencing issues at 23rd St. and 14th St. At 14th St. the water is actually over the rail which is obviously a dangerous condition we can't run that," Davey said.
Davey stressed the fact that crews were working to restore service and assess damage.
"In the meantime, we have crews basically walking our tunnel between 42nd St. and 14th St. to clear debris, make sure our drains are working which they have been, inspecting comms rooms, gotta make sure no communications were interrupted," Davey said.
