Crews Work Around The Clock To Repair Water Main Break In Anaheim

ANAHEIM (CBSLA) — Crews worked in the predawn hours Thursday to fill in a hole that had to be dug up to repair a water main break that left an Anaheim neighborhood looking more like a lake.

Front-loaders and bulldozers were out in force by 4:30 a.m. to push mud and dirt back into the giant hole at North and Sabina streets, after crews worked round the clock to dig up the road and make repairs to the pipe.

"Cannot sleep all night because of the trucks coming in and out, in and out, and my driveway was blocked last night, but nothing big to worry about," resident Gilbert Rodriguez said.

The break happened sometime Wednesday afternoon, prompting neighbors to call 911 to report flooding in the street. Even after crews arrived, it took about an hour to shut down the water to the water main, which is believed to have been built in 1929.

City officials hoped to have the 90-year-old pipe repaired and the street patched by the morning, but only after crews dig up another stretch of the road to make sure everything underneath is secure before they can make the final repairs.

"Usually what they do is try to put a temporary fix on the roadway just so they can get people driving on it, but once they assessed the damage to the roadway, they decided to go ahead and do that more permanent roadway fix," Anaheim city spokeswoman Lauren Gold said.