Gushing water. Photo by BFD.
A burst water main at Stuart and Warrenton streets caused traffic issues and forced the shutdown of the Charles Playhouse because the low-pressure main fed its toilets and sprinklers, the Boston Fire Department reports:
Theater has no working fire sprinkler system and toilets not functioning because of no water pressure. Shows cancelled.
The eight-inch main burst around 11:30 a.m.
South Street steam. Photo by Joe Yuska.
Firefighters began evacuating 76 South Street around 9:40 a.m. when a steam pipe under the street failed as only a steam pipe can, turning the building into an instant shvitz with steam pouring into it.
A hazmat team was also called in, because old pipes could be lined with asbestos.
No doubt there's a perfectly good explanation for this afternoon's six-story geyser on A Street at Congress that doesn't involve a burst water main or an attack by Lord Nemo on the surface people. Photograph by Upstatement.
Robbie Waters provides another view of the eponymous event.
Glub, glub
Gerrit Betz shows us what happens when a BWSC water main bursts, in this case at Broad and Milk.
Nancy Cremins gives us another view of the flooding:
At North and Congress streets.
UPDATE, 11:55 a.m.: The city reports Congress remains shut from State to North, on the northbound side only, as BWSC makes repairs.
Boston Police report two guys posing as water workers rang an 84-year-old Huron Circle resident's door around 5:30 p.m. yesterday and said they needed to check his pipes:
BWSC workers are on scene trying to fix the pipe; police say drivers should avoid the area.
The Jamaica Plain Gazette reports a JP woman got taken in by an old scam a few days ago: Two guys knocked on her door, said they were from BWSC and needed to check her water pressure. While one ran the water in her kitchen, the other went into her bedroom and lifted jewelry.
UPDATE: See the comments for why this is all really the DPW's fault, well, except for the part about doing a half-assed job at leveling off the asphalt to begin with.
Of course, you have to doff your hat to the dedicated men and women of the Boston Water and Sewer Commission, who tirelessly toil in the muck and mire 24 hours a day to keep our water and sewage flowing. But why can't they ever put sidewalks back the way they found them? We had a misshapen lump of asphalt instead of a concrete square in front of our house for several years - and when it was finally replaced, it was thanks to the DPW, which was overhauling all the sidewalks on the street.
The photo above comes from W. 5th Street in South Boston, where a resident complains and pleads:
The city dug up this fire hydrant a few months ago and did a terrible job repatching the surrounding sidewalk. I've seen too many women with strollers resort to walking in the road to avoid the hole. Please patch so surface is at least level
Over on Mansfield Street in Allston, another resident posts another photo of a lumpy blob of asphalt where a piece of concrete should be.
Happened around 3 a.m. between Washington and Harrison, Brian D'Amico reports.
It's a major mess at Sedgwick and South streets in JP, where a water main burst, flooding the streets and bringing in a flotilla of tow trucks to move cars out of the way.
And that includes buses and ambulances, Nathan Spencer reports. He adds this is the second one in two years there.
Yep, another water main went kablooie this morning, right at Washington and Winter streets, Channel 4 reports.
Channel 25 reports on a geyser at Norfolk Avenue and Hampden Street in Roxbury, thanks to a water-main break.
The federal government wants to join a local environmental group's lawsuit against Boston for allegedly failing to keep crap out of rivers feeding into Boston Harbor.
Tim Johnson tweets to beware of the area around W. Springfield and Shawmut this morning.
At least one South End resident alerts us that a helicopter has been buzzing the area since 5:30 and that he wishes it would go away already.
Where a 12-inch water main under Washington Street up and burst itself this morning, creating a sinkhole and disrupting the commute for Oak Square commuters as the city shut the street and diverted MBTA buses - but without telling any of the repair crews what to tell soggy bus riders where their buses went. The Globe reports the official BWSC response: "It's just one of those sinkholes." La di da.
A burst main at Tremont and Ruggles streets this morning meant gushing water and diverted traffic on those streets and Melnea Cass Boulevard.
It was, Councilor Maureen Feeney recalls, complete pandemonium: Last summer, somebody opened five hydrants in the area around Norton and Bowdoin streets and the area became an instant disaster zone: Basements were flooded, backyards washed out, cars damaged and some little kids were sent tumbling down the hill because of the force of the water. Thank God a fire didn't break out in the area at the time, she says.
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