By Mary O’KEEFE

The water main break that created a large sink hole, traffic problems and, for a while, a river of water rushing down Verdugo Road on Tuesday is scheduled to be repaired and the road back to normal by Friday.

“We are planning to pave [Thursday] around noon. Right now [crews] are removing the sink hole’s pavement and wet soil,” said Roubik Golanian, Glendale Public Works director.

On Tuesday at about 9:30  a.m. an electrical subcontractor for Pima Corporation, a subcontractor for the City of Glendale, was in the process of doing horizontal drilling on Verdugo Boulevard just east of the Honolulu/Montrose avenues/Verdugo Road when a water main was hit.

“The evidence from the pipe shows a hole going in one side of the pipe and out the other side,” said Dennis Erdman, general manager for the Crescenta Valley Water District.

The break created an immediate sinkhole in the westbound lanes of Verdugo Boulevard. Water rushed down Verdugo Road southbound for several miles.

Initially only about a one-block area was affected by the water outage, Erdman said.

“The smaller outage affected the commercial building that was [on the northeast] corner of the [intersection],” he added.

That was the first outage; CVWD discovered they had to release the pipe pressure, which created a secondary outage that affected about 30 to 40 more customers, including a nearby convalescent home.

“They were out from about noon to 6 p.m. [on Tuesday],” Erdman said.

For the businesses on the corner that were affected, CVWD brought in bottled water they had purchased from a nearby market.

CVWD estimated about 800,000 gallons of water was lost due to the break. The pipe has been repaired but Erdman said it is a temporary fix.

“It is now tight and secure, but for the long term we need to do a welded repair,” he said.

To do that several customers will be without water during the repairs. CVWD will have to let customers know in advance they will be without water.

“We didn’t have time to do that now and with the holiday … we will schedule the [welded and permanent] repair for next week,” he added.

That will entail tearing up the street that is now being paved, but the road closure will not be as extensive as it is now.

The east and westbound lanes of Verdugo Boulevard have been closed since the main break on Tuesday.

“We will have to do the second [repair] and close a couple of lanes,” Erdman said.

Erdman said the City of Glendale and CVWD have worked closely together to take care of the issue. They have hired a contractor known to both the city and CVWD to pave the road.

The area is under scheduled repair through October by the City of Glendale.

“We are removing the median and building a new one,” Golanian said.

The water pipe breaking has not negatively affected the construction. There will be scheduled street closures as the construction continues.

“The plan has always been to leave one side open, no complete [street] closures,” Golanian said.

Erdman added that if any CVWD customers in the area see sediment in their water while the repairs are being completed, they are to let the water run from the faucet run until it runs clear.

  Mary Okeefe