A massive water main break caused a road to washout, traffic headaches and damage to vehicles on Thursday morning.
It happened just outside downtown Waterbury on Thomaston Avenue by the Thomaston line. Police shut down a quarter mile of the road starting around 5:30 a.m. One of the three main lines burst and crews spent the day digging the line out for repairs.
A witness describes the scene earlier in the day as “a giant geyser spewing water” from the road.
Another driver, Mark Mercier, said he was on Thomaston Ave. before police closed it off and thought the water was a giant puddle. He made the mistake of cruising through it.
“Rocks just started ripping up the inside of my car. I finally made it through, got it over here in front of work and when I pulled into work, I realized I had a nice big gauge inside of my tire and a flat tire,” said Mercier.
Chris Bogucki, superintendent of water for the Waterbury Bureau of Water, said what would normally flow through that burst pipe was diverted to another main line and that’s why homes have water.
He was relieved to say only a few customers of a possible 8,000 served by the line, were affected by the break and had some lower than normal water pressure Thursday morning.
Bogucki tells Fox CT it could be days before this pipe is fully repaired and the road re-opened.