Crews are removing thousands of litres of water from a zone substation in Melbourne’s CBD after a burst pipe left 10,000 people without power.
Citipower said a burst water main flooded a public car park on Little Collins Street in the city on Monday evening, with floodwaters entering a substation in the basement of the property.
For safety reasons, they turned off power from the site, affecting about 10,000 customers in the south-eastern sections of the city’s CBD. The outage impacted local train lines, traffic lights and hospitals.
As of 8pm, about 1,000 people remained without power across the CBD.
Crews will work through the night to restore power and repair the damage.
“Pump trucks are on site and are removing thousands of litres of water from the zone substation on Little Collins Street,” a Citipower spokesperson said.
“We’ll continue to work through the evening to remove all the water and will begin damage assessments and any repairs immediately after the water is gone.”
VicTraffic said the power failure also knocked out dozens of traffic lights across the city.
“A large power failure has caused up to 40 sets of traffic lights to be out across the CBD, East Melbourne and South Yarra,” a VicTraffic social media post said.
“When traffic lights aren’t working, you must follow the same rules at an intersection that has a stop or give way sign or line.”
Dozens of traffic lights in Melbourne were impacted by the outage. (ABC News: Andie Noonan)
An Epworth spokesperson said power had been restored to the Epworth Freemasons hospitals on Albert Street and Victoria Parade.
Both facilities were impacted by the outage for a couple of hours, with emergency lighting activated.
No patients had to be moved.
“Our teams enacted established contingency arrangements immediately and patients remain safe, and continue to receive care across both locations,” the spokesperson said.