A water main break flooded Tremont Street in Boston on the Roxbury-South End line overnight – spawning a sinkhole that swallowed an SUV.
And believe it or not – the same exact thing happened in the same spot just last Tuesday to a transit van.
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“But the second time it’s like, 'Wow, what’s going on?'” said Robert Morgan, whose car narrowly escaped the giant crater both times but was completely surrounded by sediment as the water started rising.
“So me and a firefighter were shoveling it out at 1 a.m., while water’s all around," Morgan said.
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“This whole area was flooded,” said Erik Grau, president of Piano Craft Gallery.
Water rushed right down the stairs and into his business.
The nonprofit was still cleaning up from the last water main break when this break caused significantly more damage Friday morning.
“We’re going to have to replace our walls, we lost artwork in the backroom, we lost all of our pedestals,” Grau said.
“Unfortunately, it’s the same pipe that broke a week and a half ago and we don’t know the cause, why it broke,” Boston Water and Sewer Commission spokesman Tom Bagley said.
It’s a 150-year-old, 20-inch pipe that was relined more than half a century ago, with a 16-foot section replaced after last week’s break.
“Unfortunately these things do happen," Bagley said. "Again, we apologize and we’re going to try to ensure that this will never happen again in this location.”
City officials say they’ll keep the water shut off for now because it’s not affecting the water supply to any buildings while they do temporary repairs here to hopefully reopen the street later in the day. Then engineers will determine whether this entire stretch needs to be replaced.
