Crews with the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power on Wednesday night encountered a possible setback in reopening Sunset Boulevard in West Hollywood following last week’s massive water main break.
Water was seen pooling on the eastern edge of the surface that crews were backfilling and preparing for paving after making repairs to the section of broken pipe at around 8:30 p.m., the utility said.
The development comes nearly a week after the water main break unleashed some 17 gallons of water into a West Hollywood neighborhood last Thursday. Crews were appearing to make steady progress and getting ready to resurface Sunset Boulevard, with officials aiming to reopen the popular street by the end of the week.
“Crews are now excavating to find the source of the leak and assessing the extent of the damage to immediately begin additional repairs,” LADWP Chief Customer Officer Joe Ramallo said in a statement. “The extent of the needed additional work and the impact to the estimated timeline for completion is not known at this time.”
Late Wednesday night, NewsChopper4 was above the sinkhole repair site, where it appeared the paving process was continuing. Cones could be seen surrounding where the LADWP believed the possible leak, or potentially water from the slurry, was coming from as crews covered the areas around the cones with pavement.
The LADWP called this an “evolving situation,” adding that the utility would provide more information when available.
This is a developing story.