Newland Street Gets Man-Made Lake When Water Line Breaks, Road Buckles

Paramedic Craig Campbell on Sunday inadvertently discovered the Water Leak That Ate Newland Street.

Driving a Westminster Fire Department van with two other on-duty paramedics aboard, Campbell pulled past Warner Avenue and, south of the crosswalk, Newland Street began to sink under them.

Ten seconds later, the trio stood outside the idling van, staring at a 10-foot-wide crater in the road that was rapidly filling with muddy water. Campbell had steered the van to the right as the pavement buckled and sank beneath the rear tires.

Expanding Crater

“We were trying to think what we were going to tell our dispatcher if we had gotten stuck in it,” said Campbell, who returned after his earlier call to have a look at the expanding crater. “We didn’t think she would believe this. “

An underground water line had burst somewhere under Newland Street, just south of Warner Avenue, city officials said. The resulting crater and search for the leaking water main made it tough for motorists and small business owners in the area. By nightfall, the hole had grown to about 75 feet in diameter, because workers had to dig until they stopped finding water.

Authorities advised commuters to find alternate routes around the intersection of Newland Street at Warner Avenue.

‘Underground River’

“What they’ve got out there is like an underground river under Newland,” Huntington Beach Police Lt. Jack Reinholtz said. “And it’s been corroding everything. If it starts raining before it gets patched up, we could be in serious trouble.

“Warner Avenue is a commuter street for the San Diego Freeway on-ramp at Magnolia. It’s going to be a mess one way or another (this) morning.”

Motorists can expect to find Warner Avenue closed to eastbound traffic from Beach Boulevard to Newland Street, and Newland closed to southbound traffic from Warner to Slater avenues, Huntington Beach Police Lt. Bill Mamelli said.

By nightfall Sunday, workers had filled the hole with dirt so no one could fall into it, and set up an overnight guard post to keep the curious out. Workers were expected to return this morning to attempt repair of the water line and road, said Frank Cordon, crew foreman for the Huntington Beach Water Department.

“It’s been probably leaking for a few days; it (the water) just didn’t come to the surface,” Cordon said.

At first, the paramedics parked their van to block the bubbling hole from traffic. Police and work crews quickly arrived and determined within 30 minutes that a water line had to be broken somewhere nearby to cause such destruction, Huntington Beach Police Sgt. Mike Relic said.

By noon, crews had hoisted large pieces of asphalt from the hole, pumped water from the three-foot-deep hole and used jackhammers to begin digging holes elsewhere around the initial crater in search of the source of the leak.

They hit pay dirt on their first effort, a four-foot square hole dug in the pavement that revealed a gurgling stream of water. It was not a water main, but a one-inch service line from the main pipe to a corner convenience store that had cracked, workers said. They speculated that the recent earthquake may have contributed to the break or that perhaps the pipe had corroded.

Standing 40 feet from the gaping whole in the street, Cordon added, “I’d say it’s a little unusual, but these things happen.”

Sure they do, said Steve Tahouri, operator of the corner gas station where all but one driveway was closed to keep traffic from getting stuck in the hole in Newland Street. But on Sunday morning?

“They can’t make a left turn; they can’t make a right turn--Accchh,” he muttered, looking forlorn as he leaned on a pump for unleaded gas, his chin in his hands.

At the 7-Eleven store at the southwest corner of the intersection, employees had their own problems. In order to find the leak in the water line, the water valves north and south of the intersection had to be shut off temporarily, leaving the store and a half-dozen other small businesses south of Warner Avenue without water. (Surrounding residential tracts were unaffected by the shut-off of the water, city officials said.)

“Have you ever tried to make coffee without water?” asked store clerk Lisa McGee, 20, whose shift began at 9 a.m.