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Water Main Break Repaired, 29th Avenue Reopens

DENVER (CBS4) - Denver Public Works crews have completed repairing a large water main pipe that burst on Thursday night in Denver's Lower Highlands neighborhood.

29th Avenue between Zuni Street and Wyandot Street had to be closed for the repairs. The street was reopened around noon on Saturday.

Officials working to repair the pipe said the age of the pipe may have had something to do with break. The pipe is about 50 years old.

When it burst, water gushed into a construction site and flooded Interstate 25, shutting it down for a short time.

Several businesses also were flooded near the intersection of 29th and Zuni. The damage to those buildings is still being fully assessed, but there is some damage to some walls and one of the businesses had dozens of fans blowing on their soaked areas on Friday at noon.

Residents said the rush of water was frightening on Thursday night.

"All of a sudden the water starts rushing down. My first thought is let's get across the street before we can't," said Melony Smithson.

I-25 Speer LoHi watermain break
Flooding on I-25 (credit: Mark Neitro)

"My son and I were trying to get across the flooded area but the water almost took him," said Margarita Campos. "We kind of snatched him up real quick so he wouldn't (be pulled away). It was an experience I didn't think I would ever experience."

There were about 40 homes without water service while the repair work was being done, and several businesses also didn't have water service.

Earlier on Friday Denver Water spokesman Travis Thompson described the difficulty of the repair job.

"Right now what we're doing is we're waiting for some shoring which is the walls to hold in the actual hole so our crews can get down in there and work. We actually had to work to specially make the shoring to fit into this hole."

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