Drivers Get Green Light on Coldwater Canyon
Frustrated drivers have had to figure out another way around since the Coldwater Canyon shortcut across the Hollywood Hills was shut down because of repair work to a broken water main.
On Saturday night, the road was reopened. The Department of Water and Power said the road reopened at about 8 p.m.
The water main rupture on Coldwater Canyon Avenue on Sept. 5 swept cars away and forced people from their homes. The 62-inch steel pipeline was installed in 1914 under then-City Engineer William Mulholland and had ruptured near the same spot in 1993. Water officials blamed the rupture on corrosion of an aging pipeline.
Department of Water and Power officials say welders spliced together a patch for the 5-foot-diameter hole that burst and flooded about six blocks in Studio City. Drivers were urged to use Beverly Glen or Laurel Canyon boulevards instead of Coldwater Canyon Avenue in Studio City.
The trunk line that broke had been scheduled for replacement in the near future under a $1.4 billion infrastructure program now underway to replace 32 miles of the larger trunk lines used by the Department of Water and Power.
