NEW YORK (AP) — A 127-year-old water main under Times Square in New York City burst early Tuesday, flooding downtown streets and the city’s busiest subway station.
The 20-inch-wide pipeline burst under 40th Street and Seventh Avenue at 3 a.m., said Rohit Aggarwala, commissioner of the New York City Department of Environmental Protection.
The water was only inches deep in the street, but videos posted on social media showed floodwater cascading into the Times Square subway station down stairs and through vents. The water turned the ditches through which the subway tracks pass into small rivers and soaked the platforms.
It took crews from the Department of Environmental Protection about an hour to find the source of the leak and shut off the water, Aggarwala said.
The excavation left a large hole at the intersection of 40th Street and Seventh Avenue, where workers dug with heavy machinery to reach the broken section of pipe.
Although that intersection remained closed to traffic, the surrounding streets were opened at rush hour.
However, subway service has been suspended across much of Manhattan on the 1, 2 and 3 lines, which run directly under the broken pipe. Service was restored by noon, New York City Transit CEO Richard Davey said.
Aggarwala said only two local businesses appeared to be without water at the start of the working day.
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2023-08-29 16:24:08
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