SAN DIEGO (CBS 8) – Some commuters in downtown San Diego were forced to take detours Thursday morning due to a massive water main break.
Water was restored around 2:00 p.m., Tuesday afternoon, and the streets were reopened by 3:00 p.m.
A contractor working near the intersection of Fourth Avenue and A Street overnight struck an 8-inch diameter concrete water main. The repair work took several hours, because workers had to dig a hole several feet deep, while cutting the old pipe.
Hundreds of customers from the 300 through 600 blocks of A Street and the 400 and 500 blocks of Cedar Street were without water service, including The Paul Mitchell School, ACLU San Diego, high-rise office buildings and other businesses and restaurants. Many locations had no running water and couldn’t use their bathrooms.
"For us it was so last minute and unexpected and we had some fun stuff planned for the students and we'll have to make up those hours for them,” said Tony Sosa with Paul Mitchell School.
The Paul Mitchell School closed for the day and they rescheduled more than 40 appointments.
The ruptured pipe also prompted authorities to close Fourth Avenue from A to Ash streets, city Public Utilities Department spokesman Arian Collins said.