Overview
- A century-old 36-inch trunk line burst early Thursday, sending an estimated 17 million gallons into West Hollywood, creating a sinkhole and flooding garages and streets.
- Crews cut out about a 25-foot damaged segment and welded in a new replacement section and are now slowly repressurizing the line, disinfecting it with chlorine and running leak and safety tests with no reopening date set.
- The neighborhood is being served by a much smaller temporary 8-inch feed that has caused low pressure and prompted city officials to ask residents to conserve water.
- Separate smaller breaks and private-property leaks in Venice and Hollywood over the weekend were reported and mostly repaired, though the string of failures has raised questions about broader system risk.
- LADWP says roughly 30 percent of mains are more than 80 years old and the Sunset trunk is scheduled for full replacement starting in 2031 as part of a multi-billion dollar capital plan that will take years to complete.