127-year-old water main gives way under NYC’s Times Square, flooding streets, subways

NEW YORK — A 127-year-old water important underneath New York’s Occasions Sq. gave manner early Tuesday, flooding midtown streets and town’s busiest subway station.

The 20-inch (half-meter) pipe gave manner underneath fortieth Avenue and Seventh Avenue at 3 a.m., and rapidly delivered a moist reminder of the perils of getting old infrastructure beneath town’s crowded streets.

The speeding water was just a few inches deep on the road, however movies posted on social media confirmed the flood cascading into the Occasions Sq. subway station down stairwells and thru air flow grates. The water turned the trenches that carry the subway tracks into mini rivers and soaked prepare platforms.

It took DEP crews about an hour to search out the supply of the leak and shut the water off, mentioned Rohit Aggarwala, commissioner of New York Metropolis’s Division of Environmental Safety.

The excavation left a giant gap and a muddy mess in a single metropolis intersection the place employees dug with heavy tools to get to the damaged part of pipe.

Surrounding streets have been open by rush hour, however subway service was suspended by way of a lot of Manhattan on the 1, 2 and three traces, which run immediately underneath the damaged pipe. Service was restored with delays by noon.

Solely two native companies have been with out left with out water initially of the work day, Aggarwala mentioned.

New York Metropolis has about 6,800 miles (10,900 kilometers) value of water mains — sufficient pipe to stretch from Occasions Sq. to Tokyo — and has spent $1.9 billion up to now three years upgrading outdated water and sewer traces. Breaks occur someplace within the metropolis nearly on daily basis, although town mentioned the 402 water important breaks final 12 months have been the second lowest quantity on file, and higher than common for a U.S. metropolis if the dimensions of the system is taken into consideration.

The forged iron pipes used as water mains within the metropolis within the late nineteenth century, just like the one which broke, have been identified for his or her sturdiness, however even these have a typical lifespan of 120 years.

In addition to previous water and sewer pipes and subway tunnels, the bottom beneath Manhattan additionally incorporates a steam power system and {an electrical} system that depend on elements buried many a long time in the past.

Breakdowns can sometimes be spectacular. In 2007, an 83-year-old steam pipe exploded close to Grand Central Terminal, sending a towering geyser of scalding vapor and dirt into the air, swallowing a tow truck and killing one particular person.

___

This story has been up to date to appropriate the age of the forged iron pipes.