Century-old water main burst floods Sunset Boulevard, opens giant sinkhole

Water tore through Sunset Boulevard before dawn Thursday when a 36-inch main near Palm Avenue and Harratt Street ruptured around 3 a.m., flooding streets, submerging cars and carving out a massive sinkhole in West Hollywood. The break sent water across the Sunset Strip and into nearby buildings, parking garages and a Metro bus yard.

Two people fell into a sidewalk sinkhole on Palm Avenue and escaped, while no injuries were reported overall. The flooding also spread toward Holloway Drive, where crews found streets covered in water and debris as the rupture forced closures across a busy stretch of the city.

By about 7 a.m., crews had shut off the supply and started repairs and cleanup, but the damage kept lanes closed and slowed traffic through the corridor. The Los Angeles County Fire Department said the rupture was a 36-inch trunk main, a line large enough to unleash a torrent before it can be isolated.

The Los Angeles Department of Water and Power’s 2023-24 Water Infrastructure Plan puts the utility’s network at about 7,341 miles of mainlines and trunk lines, and more than 30% of LADWP mainlines are older than 80 years. The century-old pipe was already slated for replacement as part of a high-priority LADWP project.

LADWP is also expected to replace 1,300 feet of water main on N. La Cienega Boulevard between Fountain Avenue and Santa Monica Boulevard. The West Hollywood rupture recalls a 2014 break near Sunset Boulevard and Olive that also flooded streets, forced closures and set off repairs.