West Hollywood's Sunset Boulevard: Another Snag Emerges at the Sinkhole Repair Site

You know, just when folks in West Hollywood were starting to breathe a collective sigh of relief, hoping for Sunset Boulevard to fully reopen soon, a fresh snag has popped up. It seems crews, who've been working tirelessly, discovered a brand-new leak at the very site where they're mending that massive water main break.

This whole ordeal, as many will recall, started late last Thursday, around 3 a.m. to be precise. That's when a truly ancient, 110-year-old pipe – a 36-inch riveted steel behemoth, part of the Sunset Trunk Line – simply burst. Imagine, 17 million gallons of water just gushing out, turning parts of West Hollywood into an unexpected river. Cars were floating, concrete slabs shifted, garages flooded. It was, frankly, one of the worst water main breaks L.A. had seen in ages, damaging hundreds of vehicles, maybe 150 to 200 by some counts.

LADWP crews, bless their hearts, jumped right into action. Their task was monumental: pump out all that water, fix the huge pipe by welding in a 25-foot replacement section, then repressurize, flush, and test everything. Initially, there was talk of reopening by Monday, then maybe Thursday or Friday of this week. Everyone was hopeful, wanting to get that crucial stretch between Sherbourne Drive and San Vicente Boulevard back in operation.

But then, Wednesday evening, around 8:30 p.m., came the frustrating news. As crews were backfilling and getting ready for paving at the east end of the worksite, they spotted it: a small, almost imperceptible pinhole leak. Water was just barely pooling at the surface, right as they were compacting the concrete aggregate base. It's almost like the old pipe was just giving one last, defiant sigh.

Naturally, they had to stop everything. Crews immediately excavated an approximately three-by-four-foot area to get at the leak and patch it up with some welding. Anselmo Collins, LADWP's Chief Operating Officer and Senior Assistant General Manager, confirmed they took fresh water quality samples, as you'd expect, just to be sure. The good news? Despite this little hiccup, LADWP is still optimistic about reopening Sunset Boulevard tentatively by Friday or Saturday. So, it's a delay, yes, but hopefully not a major one.

Oh, and just to be clear, there was another small 6-inch cast-iron water main leak discovered Thursday morning about a mile away, but officials are adamant it's completely separate from this big Sunset Boulevard saga. Looking ahead, this whole situation really highlights the city's aging infrastructure. The entire 10-mile Sunset Trunk Line was already slated for replacement, with design work for nearly 6.4 miles of large-diameter pipe and 3.5 miles of distribution pipe underway. Construction, though, isn't expected to kick off until 2031. It's a long game, for sure, when you consider pipes from 1916 are still in service.

So, while this latest 'pinhole' problem is certainly a frustrating setback for commuters and residents alike, it seems the hardworking crews are on it, aiming to get West Hollywood's iconic Sunset Boulevard fully back in action very, very soon. Fingers crossed!