DWP Begins 5-Week Water Main Project

The Los Angeles Department of Water and Power began a five-week project Sunday night to replace a corroded, 86-year-old water pipe running under the stretch of Colorado Boulevard between Eagle Rock Boulevard and Maywood Avenue.

For five weeks, from 10 p.m. to 6 a.m., Sundays through Thursdays, DWP crews will install a new 16-inch ductile iron water main that will improve the flow capacity of water in the area, according to a DWP spokesperson.

The old water pipe under Colorado dates back to 1924. The new main line will run parallel to the old one, and feeder lines to the adjacent buildings will be connected to the new line.

The project, whose launch coincided with Sunday night’s bursting of two water mains nearby along Highland View Avenue and Grandola Avenue, will unfold in two phases, according to the DWP spokesperson. During the first phase, the new pipe will be installed, and during the second phase, the new water pipeline will be connected to water meters in nearby buildings.

Business owners and residents should prepare for their water service to be interrupted on two occasions for about five hours while the new pipeline is being installed, the DWP said in an e-mail communiqué. A further hour-long interruption may occur while consumers’ service lines are being connected to the new pipeline. The DWP will send prior notifications to everyone likely to be affected by the scheduled interruptions.

The project is part of a larger, seven-to-nine-month undertaking by the DWP to replace water mains along the entire stretch of Colorado Boulevard from Eagle Rock Boulevard to Figueroa Street.

But because of heightened business and traffic concerns, only the stretch of Colorado between Eagle Rock Boulevard and Maywood will be completed during night shifts. Work on other sections of Colorado will be done during the day, and will take up one of the boulevard’s eastbound lanes.