Water main break repairs in Times Square impacting drivers, delivery trucks and stores
NEW YORK -- Wednesday marked a second day of snarled traffic through Times Square as crews worked to repair a water main that broke on Tuesday morning, flooding the street and subway below, and putting a spotlight on the city's aging infrastructure.
The flooding issues were cleaned up Tuesday, but crews are still working on repairs to the water main, and that means traffic through West 41st Street and Seventh Avenue is still down to one lane, making life difficult for drivers, delivery trucks and stores.
One truck driver said it's forcing him to delay deliveries.
"I have one here that I can't make. I have to do it tomorrow sometime. The traffic and there's nowhere to park, that's the problem," the truck driver said.
"It has slowed down our business," a local vendor added.
He said the street closures set back deliveries by at least a day.
"We have a streetwear backpack brand and yesterday was our refill day, because over the weekend we sell a lot of bags for back to school. Our shipment that was supposed to get here at 6 a.m. showed up at 4 p.m. because that's how long it took them to allow a big truck to come through," the vendor said.
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At around 3 a.m. on Tuesday a 20-inch pipe broke, flooding both the streets and the Times Square 1, 2 and 3 subway station. Transit Authority officials said 1.8 million gallons of water entered the system, and added it took the city Department of Environmental Protection about 90 minutes to turn the water off, delaying commuters.
"Especially in the subway system it seems like there's a lot of sort of like unattended to damage that gets in the way of commuting," a commuter named James said.
Officials said the pipe that broke was 127 years old. One architect said aging underground infrastructure is a problem across the city.
"I work with buildings around and when you have an elevator pit or a unit underground you have water, you have streams that shouldn't be there. There always water infiltration of the buildings. And you contact DEP many times and they don't come. It takes months for them to come," Raul Miyta said.
The city says there are more than 6,800 miles of water mains across the five boroughs. That's easily enough to stretch to Los Angeles and back. So far in 2023 the city has responded to 402 breaks, though that's the second-lowest total on record. During that same timeframe, the city invested $769 million in new sewers and water mains.
CBS New York was told the section of pipe that broke on Tuesday was to sent to a lab for examination as officials try to find the cause. The work in Times Square is expected to continue throughout the day Wednesday.