Crews finishing repairs following water main break in North Beach

MIAMI BEACH, FLA. (WSVN) - Crews are finishing repairs to the roadway after a broken water main in the northern part of Miami Beach led to multiple road closures and street flooding.

7SkyForce HD hovered above the rupture as water gushed out on the street at the intersection of 74th Street and Carlyle Avenue, about six blocks west of Collins Avenue, Monday afternoon.

Miami Beach Police and Fire Rescue units could be seen at the scene. Crews were seen wading in ankle-deep water.

Roy Coley, the director of Miami Beach Public Works, spoke with 7News on the phone and provided further details about the water main break.

“We received notice at about 5:30 of a water leakage … and we started dispatching our team there. They are working to close the valve to stop this flow,” he said. “We suspect it’s our 24-inch water line that flows through there.”

Officials said a line of clean water ruptured just before 5:30 p.m., flooding the intersection.

Cameras captured flooded streets and exterior parking spaces.

Area residents came home to find their streets flooded and roads closed.

“What the heck is happening?” said Nancy Frohlich.

“I came here, and the street was full of water where I usually park, so I had to go find public parking,” said Ulf Erlingsson.

Cellphone video captured the steady stream of water flowing into Carlyle Avenue.

“The work that we’re doing here is common for our team,” Coley said Tuesday. “We have a team of well-trained professionals. They’re really good at it. They know what they’re doing.”

Coley said the city is working to prevent the lines from breaking, and they are methodically going through and replacing the lines most at risk. The line that burst was a 60-year-old pipe and was on the list for replacement.

“It’s not unusual when you have aging water lines,” Coley said. “This is just a case where the water line has lived beyond its useful life, and we just need to replace a section of it. I think it’s fair to say like most communities, we suffer from some deferred maintenance from decades ago, and we’re just playing a little bit of catch-up, but we have a plan, we have a team in place and we’re moving along.”

Traffic has been completely shut down between 72nd and 75th streets along Byron, Carlyle and Dickens avenues. Police urge drivers to avoid the area and seek alternate routes.

The closures gave area residents a big headache at the height of rush hour.

“People want to get in and out, and it’s not easy to do that,” said Rachid Drissi.

“We ask everybody to avoid the area … and then we can report who was impacted and how long it will take us to effect the repairs,” said Coley.

Just before 7 p.m., crews were able to locate and close the shut-off valve so they could begin fixing the rupture.

“This may take several hours to repair. It may take a day or two to repair,” said Coley. “We just don’t know at this time how many people might be impacted.”

City officials said residents in a nearby 16-unit building were asked to leave their homes temporarily.

“We had to evacuate the building at 540 74th [Street] simply out of precaution, because there’s an electrical pole in the area, so we notified FPL, again, simply out of precaution,” said Miami Beach spokesperson Tonya Daniels.

Those residents were allowed to return to their units by 8:30 p.m., but the repairs are expected to last well into the night.

It remains unclear what caused the pipe to break, but city leaders said they’ve had their eye on the area’s aging infrastructure.

“Number one, it’s an old pipe. This is an area that we have not yet done one of our neighborhood projects,” said City Manager Jimmy Morales. “This pipe is probably in excess of 60 years old … so this is one of the reasons we’re doing all these projects across the city.”

“It’s on the latest for future replacement,” Coley said. “We’re just gonna replace it a little sooner than we thought.”

Crews returned to the area on Tuesday morning at around 7 a.m. to continue working on repairs but dealt with another unforeseen leak.

“The pipe further down the line began leaking this morning again, so we have shut the water line off again,” said a city official. “We have one building out of water. It is drinking water. There is nothing dirty about it or unsanitary, it’s just a nuisance.”

Coley said the leak should be repaired by Tuesday night.

“Our team will go in and replace the pipe. Then we’ll bring fill material back, we’ll fill the hole up, and then we have the road-building team on standby that will then repave this road,” he said.

Crews managed to restore water to affected residents Monday night.

Officials previously advised residents of the evacuated building to boil their water, but that advisory has since been lifted.

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