Hole Opens In Road After Water Main Break

There is a giant, car-sized hole in the middle of one of Daytona Beach's busiest roads and WFTV learned it was caused by a water main break Wednesday.

The hole is backing up traffic on Nova Road near Beville Road. Water is gushing out of the road because the pipe is so old, the valves don't work anymore, and crews can't turn the water off, so they can't fix the pipe. The water main break may be a problem well into Thursday.

Utilities crews hammered away at the old iron pipe, eight-feet under Nova Road (see map) near Woodcliff Drive Wednesday. When the 50-year-old, 12-inch water main gave way in the early morning hours, it caused the state highway to collapse. Two lanes that carry 37,000 cars a day disappeared and several hundred feet of pavement buckled.

“I tried to turn the water on to wash my face. I was like, ’It’s not coming on,’" resident Dwayne Williams said.

Three-hundred and twenty homes and apartments in the area immediately lost water. There's nothing for drinking, cooking, bathing, or the bathroom.

"If it doesn't get fixed soon, I'm going over to his house, take a bath, shower," resident Josh McCloud said.

The aging pipe won't be fixed soon, though. An outside company had to be called in to help shut the water off so repairs can start.

The break happened just 100 yards from a similar problem a year ago. There was another one on International Speedway Boulevard the year before that. The aging infrastructure exists all over the city and the utilities director said there is no feasible way to replace it before it breaks.

"You don't know what's going to break or where. It's hard to just start replacing pipe. You could still have breaks elsewhere. So it's kind of responding to emergencies," Utilities Director Mitt Tidwell said.

Crews have to dig two more holes deep down into the road to install valves and shut the water off. Then there will be a lot of roadway repair to do.