Parts of Balboa Fun Zone, Balboa Island closed off for pipe repairs

Repair work is underway on one of two underwater pipes that carry water to Balboa Island after a pipe break was reported to the city in mid-April.

City spokesman John Pope said the city was made aware of the damage after someone observed water movement and bubbling to the surface in Newport Harbor. City staff shut down the pipe immediately and hired a dive company to survey the damage, which appeared to have been related to the pipe’s age. A temporary repair clamp was installed.

“The pipe ... was installed in the 1950s. It was identified in an infrastructure repair plan, and the city was preparing to go out to bid for a replacement pipe,” Pope said.

Expected to be completed within the next two weeks, the repairs entail the installation of a specialty insert liner that will be pulled through the old pipe, which is around 950 feet in length. Parts of the Balboa Fun Zone and Balboa Island have been closed off — mainly around Washington and Opal streets — for staff to access and install the liner. Pope said the city is in coordination with businesses in both areas to minimize impacts.

A digging crane sits at the Balboa Fun Zone, where a portion of it has been closed off to do repairs to an underwater pipe between Balboa Island and the area.

(Courtesy of the city of Newport Beach)

Utilities director Mark Vukojevic said Thursday the pipe currently under repair, which extends between the Balboa Fun Zone and Balboa Island, is one of three that were scheduled to go out to bid for relining this summer.

One of the other two pipes in need of relining spans from the Balboa Peninsula to Corona del Mar; the third is a sewer line that extends between Balboa Island and Bayside.

Three other pipe projects are in the design phase. Vukojevic said all the pipes needing the work were installed at around the same window, the 1950s to the 1960s.

“There are a lot of pipes that we are planning to replace and we have been actively working on. We’re doing miles of pipe every year,” he said. “It’s a really important part of our capital improvement program.”