Broken water main floods downtown Vancouver street

A nearly 80-year-old water main broke Thursday, flooding part of Columbia Street and Wallis Engineering in downtown Vancouver.

The pipe broke at about 11:50 a.m. in front of Wallis at 215 W. Fourth St. Water gushed into the street and pooled about two feet deep near the intersection of Columbia Street and Columbia Way.

The road was blocked in that area, but cars were still plowing through the water.

The 8-inch pipe that broke is made of cast iron and dates back to 1938, according to a city worker.

Ryan Voss of Wallis Engineering said he saw air bubbles come up from the cracks in the pavement in front of the building, and then water and gravel began spewing onto the street.

“There was a surge of water coming up,” he said.

City workers arrived around noon to shut off the water and put sandbags in the doorways of surrounding buildings.

The entrance hallway of Wallis Engineering, a civil engineering firm, was covered in about a half-inch of water. City officials said that damage to the building did not appear to be structural, but that they will follow up with the owner and tenants to determine the extent of the water damage inside.

No customers are out of service, according to a press release.

The workers weren’t doing any work on the pipe before it burst, according to Voss.

By 3 p.m., the road was clear of water and workers had dug a hole to the burst pipe. They pulled out a 2-foot piece of broken cast iron pipe.

Loretta Callahan, public works spokeswoman, said there is no estimated time or cost of repairs, but the pipe may be fixed within a day.

She said workers will fix the water main first, and then the street and a stretch of sidewalk that buckled. Callahan said the new pipe will not be made of cast iron.