Busted Water Main Causes Giant Hole In Studio City

STUDIO CITY (CBSLA.com) — Crews worked Monday to repair a water main break that caused a 20-foot-wide, 15-foot-deep hole along busy Ventura Boulevard.

The 20-inch plastic pipe, which sits inside an older steel pipe, ruptured Saturday night about 7 p.m. along the 12900 block of Ventura Boulevard at Coldwater Canyon in Studio City, according to KNX 1070's Jon Baird.

DWP crews were on scene, but there was no immediate estimate of when service would be restored.

It wasn't immediately known how many customers were affected.

According to the DWP, the massive hole is not a sinkhole, but rather a hole where crews are working on repairs.

While aging pipes have been blamed for a number of water main breaks over the past few years, LADWP's Charles Sparks told KNX 1070 NEWSRADIO this particular pipe was installed only about 15 years ago.

"It just happened to separate in one spot and we haven't been able to pull it apart and see exactly what's wrong with it yet," said Sparks.

Business owners and residents in the area say that this is just the latest mess. In 2009, a water main break caused flooding in the area, and in 2013, Coldwater Canyon was closed for nearly a month as part of a DWP project to replace an aging pipeline -- which the agency says is not tied to the new break.