OUC looks for answers in Downtown Orlando water main break

ORLANDO, Fla. (FOX 35 WOFL) - Work continued Tuesday to repair Summerlin Avenue after a massive water main break the day before.

The Orlando Utilities Commission reports that the broken pipe in the 600 block was replaced by Tuesday morning and work began to repair the actual road. Throughout the day, crews worked to further repair the structure of the hole in the road and prepare the ground to be filled back in.

Meanwhile, neighbors along Semmerlin met with claims adjusters to deal with flooded cars, basements, and property damage.

When the water main broke on Monday afternoon, water pooled up feet deep in some of the low lying areas of the neighborhood. By the next day, some of that water still had not drained.

OUC Spokesman Tim Trudell said the company will work with the effected neighbors to take care of the property damage.

"We will work with their insurance at that point, and if they don't have insurance they can contact us directly at 407-434-2249,” said Trudell.

Many pointed out the other clearly rusted pipes in the open hole, the layers of old road, the fact that the neighborhood is so old and sits on old infrastructure.

Trudell said the pipe that broke was 80 years old. The same pipe broke a few blocks up Summerlin at the end of August.

While OUC is still accessing what caused this most recent break, the age of the line is coming into question. However Trudell said all of their lines are monitored regularly.

"We have sensors that are in place in some of our systems, we have a very aggressive maintenance cycle,” he said.

At this point, he said the company is meeting to look at the situation closer and discuss future options. Though he cautioned that replacing the entire pipe would be very expensive and, not knowing the exact cause of the break, may be an unnecessary step.