A 127-year-old water main under New York City’s infamous Times Square gave way overnight Tuesday, releasing an estimated 1.8 million gallons of water into the subway system and completely upended the morning commute for many New Yorkers.
The underground water main pipe erupted on Seventh Avenue between 43rd and 44th streets at about 3 a.m. local time, said Richard Davey, the president of New York City Transit. With Subway lines 1, 2 and 3 affected by the break, an estimated 300,000 New Yorkers who use those lines during a regular rush hour were said to have been left in transit limbo.
It took a reported 90 minutes for crews to shut off the water, with officials then proceeding to clean and repair the flooded area. By late morning, the subway lines were running once again but with delays in both directions.
“The main impact, of course, has been on the subways, because the water main is above the subway station here,” Rohit Aggarwala, the commissioner of the Department of Environmental Protection, said earlier on Tuesday. “And so for that hour and a half or so when the water was running [it] was running into the subway system.”
"The water main is from 1896. It's a 20 inch main, so a pretty big, high-pressure water main," Aggarwala said. "The original design and the maintenance of this system is more important than the age."
Davey explained the break was due to the system’s old age as well as its location underground, two factors that make it prone to flooding. He added that the Department of Environmental Protection, and the NYC Transit should work together to ensure that future breaks are resolved more quickly.
"Typically, this is a lower-ridership week for us, so we should have been able to handle the capacity. I heard of no crowding issues on other lines, but if this were two weeks from now, when a Tuesday after Labor Day we certainly would have been more challenged," Davey said.
Excavation on the issue has left a large hole at the intersection of 40th Street and Seventh Avenue. Surrounding streets were open by rush hour, as the cleanup crew attempted to get at least one lane of traffic open for commuters.