By NanaimoNewsNOW Staff

Water main break floods Nanaimo street

Jun 22, 2017 | 5:38 PM

NANAIMO — Gardens were washed away after a water main connected to a fire hydrant failed this afternoon.

John Elliot, manager of utilities with the City, told NanaimoNewsNOW 450,000 litres of water surged from a hydrant down Rosehill St. from the intersection with Stewart Ave. during the 23 minutes it took crews to shut it down.

He said to lose so much water was a “pretty large break” and the main, which was installed in 1966, wasn’t expected to fail after only 50 years.

Thankfully no houses were flooded but Elliot said there was landscape damage to several houses.

He said unfortunately water main breaks like this aren’t uncommon.

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“Touch wood we haven’t had many this year at all,” Elliot said. “We’ve been very fortunate. We were averaging about nine to 12 breaks a year and I think we’ve seen one other break similar to this so far this year.”

A detour is routing traffic away from the spill until approximately 11 p.m. Thursday while crews fix the water main and re-pave the roads and sidewalks.

island-news@jpbg.ca

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