Water main break closes busy intersection

The intersection of Inglewood Avenue and Manhattan Beach Boulevard was closed for about 24 hours last week, while Redondo Beach public works staff and representatives of three water agencies worked to identify, then fix, a broken underground water line they feared would cause a sinkhole.

Water was seen gushing up from multiple areas under the concrete pavement on Inglewood Boulevard, just north of the intersection, around noon on Friday.

Redondo Beach closed the intersection quickly, as a precautionary measure. The intersection was closed in three directions — westbound, southbound and northbound — and the City worked with CalTrans to shut down nearby Inglewood Avenue on- and off-ramps to the 405 Freeway.

“I think it was very good on our staff’s part to recognize it immediately and shut it down. There are a lot of heavy trucks that go through here and it prevented a disaster,” said Councilwoman Laura Emdee, who represents the area.

Matters were complicated by the fact that the affected line could have been owned by any of three agencies, which manage water lines under that intersection: the Metropolitan Water District, Golden State Water or California Water Service.

Redondo Beach staff were at the scene until the evening to help identify the line, which was ultimately determined to belong to CalWater, in a segment that led to a transfer connection with MWD. 

Repairs began soon after, and were completed by Saturday morning. According to Redondo Beach Public Works Director Ted Semaan, the area was backfilled with soil, compacted and layered with asphalt as a short-term repair. Redondo Beach will schedule replacement of the affected area’s concrete segments to finalize repairs.

Residents’ water was unaffected, thanks to local reservoirs.

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