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Water main break floods road in Newton

Crews cracked open Highland Ave. in Newton to get to a broken water main.Essdras M Suarez/ Globe Staff/Globe Staff

A water main break damaged Needham Street in Newton on Wednesday and choked traffic to two lanes for much of the morning and afternoon, officials said.

The Newton Fire Department responded to 25 Needham St. for the water problem just after 9 a.m., said Lieutenant Eric Fricke, a spokesman for the department. Needham Street was closed from Winchester Street to Columbia Avenue while crews worked to stem the leak, Fricke said.

The state Department of Transportation opened two lanes of Needham Street, one in each direction, by the early afternoon.

Essdras M Suarez/ Globe Staff)/Globe Staff

MassDOT reopened all lanes at about 3:30 p.m., after filling the damaged section of the road with concrete and repaving it, MassDOT spokesman Mike Verseckes said.

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Fricke said the broken pipe was buried 6 feet underground, beneath other utility lines. The damaged section, which was under the sidewalk, was a 2-inch branch of the water main that fed a sprinkler system in a nearby commercial building.

The cause of the break is under investigation.

The affected area is shown above.Google

Crews turned water off in the area at about 10:30 a.m., Fricke said. It was restored before 1 p.m.

"It was going pretty good. [The water] was curb height . . . like a little river for a while," he said.

Several businesses near 25 Needham St. lost business Wednesday as traffic was stopped along the street.

Fricke said a few businesses reported small amounts of water in their buildings but called the indoor flooding "nothing major." Personnel were on the scene as of 10:45 a.m. to help tenants remove the water.


Kiera Blessing can be reached at kiera.blessing@globe.com. Todd Feathers can be reached at todd.feathers@globe.com.