Downtown Traffic, Transit Disrupted As Water Main Break Response Continues

A water main break below the Howard Street tunnel Monday caused chaos for commuters by road and rail, halted freight and even led to a partial train derailment. Three workers have been hurt while trying to fix the break.

On Tuesday, crews worked to not only fix the break, but fill a massive void under Howard Street caused by an underground fire that injured two.

On Monday morning, water covered freight rail tracks near M&T Bank Stadium and the area around a stadium loading dock. The 12-inch main broke somewhere in the area of Pratt and Howard or Pratt and Camden streets, a city public works spokesman said.

* UPDATE *

Pratt St is now CLOSED btwn Paca & Sharp Sts



Howard remains CLOSED btwn Conway & Lombard.@BaltimoreFire now focused on a manhole cover at Convention Center Light Rail Station.@wbalradio #mdtraffic https://t.co/dBNjN0FTq0 pic.twitter.com/tPfKazoTvQ — Jim Russ WBAL NewsRadio 1090 & FM 101.5 ???? (@JimWBALTraffic) July 8, 2019

Howard Street remains closed between Lombard and Camden streets. Drivers who want to take southbound Interstate 395 should detour via Light and Conway streets. All northbound traffic will be sent down Conway Street.

Light Rail service is halted between North Avenue and Camden Yards. Shuttle bus service will serve the stops until the repair work is complete. Some local bus routes are being diverted around the scene.

Fire officials and crews from the Office of the Emergency Management and the Maryland Transit Administration responded Monday morning to assist with removing the 4 to 5 feet of water, WBAL-TV 11 reports. Emergency management officials first had to determine whether the rain was to blame for the flooding. Once it was determined the source was a water main, they had to determine where it was.

Listen to my live reports on @wbalradio from #DowntownBaltimore with @BryanNehman & @JimWBALTraffic as the intersection of #Pratt & #Howard remains shutdown with now a massive hole as crews work to fill a huge void under the road surface caused by Monday’s underground vault fire pic.twitter.com/WKdBAktEVn — Scott Wykoff (@ScottWykoffWBAL) July 10, 2019

The water caused a partial derailment, fire department spokeswoman Blair Adams said. Officials said the train was partially off the tracks as a result of the water main break. All of the train cars were removed except for the locomotive as of noon Monday.

The response briefly became a rescue operation after someone working on the water main response fell down an open manhole.

According to the mayor's office, there was a report of a collapse of an underground vault leading to multiple worker's becoming trapped.

All workers were rescued, with one worker suffering serious injuries and was taken to Shock Trauma.

Two more workers were injured when an underground fire broke out beneath the Convention Center Light Rail station. The fire was related to a collapse in an underground electrival vault. One worker was seriously injured, while a second suffered from smoke inhalation. It's not clear if the collapse is related to the water main break.

Rachelina Bonacci, a spokeswoman for the Maryland Stadium Authority, said nothing inside the stadium was damaged by flooding and that all stadium events are expected to go on as scheduled.

#BCFD on scene @M&T Bank Stadium for a flooding. Media Staging at Russell and Hamburg St at Gate A at 12noon @BaltimoreDPW @MDStadiumAuth @ChiefNilesRFord pic.twitter.com/zEibmunS9m — Baltimore Fire (@BaltimoreFire) July 8, 2019

Jim Russ and WBAL-TV 11 contributed to this report.