Water Main Break Shuts Ship Bottom Roadway; Cuts Service.

SHIP BOTTOM--- A water main break at 25th Street and Central Avenue flooded the roadway late Tuesday afternoon and severely dropped water pressure in the borough, according to the head of the Borough's Water and Sewer Department.

As of 6:30 p.m., his crew had located and engaged an isolation valve to control the flow and keep the break from potentially affecting the entire borough, said Randy Giberson.

“We had the level in the water tower drop to only 12 feet and that is really low,” he said.

“At this point we have about 20 homes without water, but hope to have that down to less in the next few hours,” he said. The homes are all between Central Avenue and Long Beach Boulevard between Ship Bottom Avenue and West 24th Street.

When the rupture was first reported around 5 p.m., Central Avenue and side streets were quickly flooded from West 24th Street down to West 28th Street where the road ends, said Giberson. That area will remain closed until repairs are complete.

His crews were able to clear the area around the break and began using a portable pump and hoses to move the water off the roadway and into the bay across the street.

Repairs crews from CMW Construction, the borough emergency response contractor, were also arriving on the scene to begin the repairs by 7 p.m.

They will need to jackhammer through the roadway to dig up and replace the line, Giberson said.

He also said unlike two other recent line breaks, this one was not related to the repaving of Central and Barnegat avenues over the spring.

The water main break at Barnegat and 13th Street and the recent sewer line rupture at 23rd Street and Central could be traced to the pressure and weight placed on the pipes by the paving equipment, he said.

“In this case, it’s just old age,” Giberson said.