A road in West Hollywood remained closed early Monday while crews patched up a water main break, the latest rupture in the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power’s aging infrastructure.

The 12-inch main ruptured before 5 a.m. and gushed water down the 1200 block of North Formosa Avenue near Santa Monica Boulevard on Sunday morning, flooding a parking garage and nearby homes, LADWP officials said.

The break sent more than 10,000 gallons of water into the street,CBS2 reported.

More than two dozen customers were without service for more than half a day Sunday before service was ultimately restored. LADWP officials said the area around where the break occurred will be coned off for the next few days while the street is repaved; the flood created a large sinkhole in the road and sent a river of water into the area.


INVESTIGATION: Is your street at risk from L.A.'s aging water mains?

Residents, who have experienced multiple water main break floods in recent years criticized the utility for the latest incident.

“What really gets me the most,” resident Roxanne McBride told KTLA, “is that the gallons and gallons of water that was wasted, this entire block of over 265 people that live here, could have used that water for a week.”

A Times analysis of city data last year showed there had been 5,200 leaks in L.A. DWP pipes since 2010, and that two-thirds of those leaking pipes were installed before 1950.


The main that ruptured Sunday was installed in 1936, according to report from KABC.

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