Sinkhole From Wilmington Water Main Break Forces Street Closure

LONG BEACH (CBSLA.com) — A water main break in Wilmington produced a giant sinkhole Friday that forced the closure of a busy street.

Crews with the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power (DWP) were pumping water out of the sinkhole along Anaheim Street at Figueroa Place just west of the Harbor (110) Freeway, according to DWP spokeswoman Carol Tucker.

The 20-inch water main rupture was reported around 5:30 a.m., Tucker said.

Traffic was being routed away from the area as crews worked to repair the main, a task that was expected to last well into the afternoon, according to Tucker.

It marked the second reported water main break in the Southland Friday after 70,000 gallons of water gushed from another pipe in the city of Commerce around 5:30 a.m., leaving a handful of local businesses without water, according to California Water Service spokesman Dan Armendariz.

Crews shut off the 12-inch cast iron pipe - which was installed in 1951 - around 7 a.m. this morning along Telegraph Road and Garfield Avenue just south of The Citadel, Armendariz said.

The cause of both breaks was not immediately known.

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