Main Break in Miracle Mile Repaired

Los Angeles (myFOXla.com) - A 12-inch water main ruptured today in the Miracle Mile area, interrupting service to about four dozen customers for several hours and forcing a traffic detour on busy Fairfax Avenue, authorities said.

The problem was reported about 6 a.m. at San Vicente Boulevard and Fairfax Avenue, said Maychelle Yee of the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power.

Crews quickly turned off the water and had the ruptured pipe fixed and water restored to the customers by 4 p.m., according to Yee, who said it was unclear what caused the rupture.

Late this afternoon, the southbound lanes of Fairfax remained closed between Eighth Street and San Vicente Boulevard. Yee said she expected the street would be reopened sometime tonight.

The rupture was the latest in a series of water main problems around the city in recent days. On Saturday alone, three other DWP mains broke -- two in the San Fernando Valley and one in the Hollywood Hills.

About 2:45 a.m. Saturday, a six-inch cast-iron main broke at 5662 Wish Ave. in Encino, causing a sinkhole six feet wide and cutting water service to about 50 customers, Yee said. The residential street borders the Balboa Sports Center portion of the Sepulveda Dam Recreational Area.

A smaller leak occurred just after 9 a.m. Saturday on a curvy street high above Laurel Canyon in the 8700 block of Crescent Drive.

Yee said the Hollywood Hills leak occurred in a six-inch steel pipe with a "pinhole leak." No property damage resulted, but four or five homes were without water for a time to accommodate repairs. Steel pipes rarely burst like cast-iron mains, she said.

About 3 p.m. Saturday, a 12-inch main broke under San Fernando Road near Bleeker Street in Sylmar, knocking out service to at least three commercial customers.

On Sunday, DWP crews repaired a damaged line in Venice -- the 34th major break since Sept. 1. But most of the big breaks have been in the San Fernando Valley.

City officials are trying to determine why there have been so many pipeline ruptures, the largest of which was 62-inch trunk line laid in 1917. That rupture on the Sherman Oaks-Studio City border created a big hole in Coldwater Canyon Avenue, just south of Ventura Boulevard, and water ran into several homes and businesses along Ventura.

A USC professor hypothesized that fluctuations in water pressure related to the city's conservation efforts could be putting added stress on the pipelines, but DWP General Manager David Nahai has said he doubted that was the reason.