A water main break on Broad Street in San Luis Obispo closed the road between Capitolio Way and Industrial Way today. Crews were on site working to repair the line and the city now expects the road will reopen by this evening. The city is asking drivers to consider taking an alternate route.
Water service in the immediate area is reportedly shut off and water discoloration may occur, although the city says it isn’t harmful.
Aaron Floyd with the city’s Utilities Department said the cause of the line break is due to old piping infrastructure that was installed in the 1960s.
“As we see the clay soils that are so prominent around San Luis Obispo start to dry out, similar to when we start seeing rain and they expand a little bit, it puts a lot of pressure on those older cast iron pipes. And then they fatigue over time as they expand and contract,” Floyd said.
Floyd said the city is actively working on replacing those pipes across the city to avoid seeing more of these breaks in the future.