A burst pipe forced the city of Montreal to ban traffic from a section of Victoria St. Wednesday morning.
Around 3:45 a.m. a 20-centimetre (eight-inch) pipe burst on Victoria St. near Lacombe Ave., and the borough of Cote des Neiges/Notre Dame de Grace closed traffic from Isabella Ave. to Edouard Montpetit Blvd.
Victoria Avenue remains closed between Edouard-Montpetit & Isabella, but is expected to be re-opened Thursday afternoon.
Crews needed several hours to shut off the water and begin clearing the water from the street before they could begin fixing the damage.
The bed of the street was badly damaged with the pavement buckled and cracked in several spots.
With the water shut off, crews excavated the intersection to access the broken pipe, which fortunately was not the main supply for the area, however crews had to dig delicately.
"Workers of the water department had to be very careful," said Michel Therrien, a spokesperson for the borough.
City crews knew the pipe contained a small leak; it was scheduled it to be repaired this coming weekend.
“We were supposed to work on that leak over the weekend, in a way that we wouldn't disturb the traffic. Unfortunately, we had to work this morning because of that breach,” said Therrien.
The eight-inch pipe is close to several others -- including a 36-inch water main.
“People of the water department had to be very careful because many pipes were crossing beneath that intersection so they had to dig a big, big hole to make sure to avoid other pipes,” said Therrien, adding that natural gas lines were there as well.
People in the area were frustrated by the unexpected detour, including Miriam Inbar, who works in the area and said the intersection has been a problem before.
“It's terrible and just two years ago we had it the whole summer -- this big hole here in the middle of the road,” she said.
