A water main break tore open a sinkhole on Normandie Avenue in Los Feliz Wednesday morning, swallowing part of the street and trapping a parked Spectrum work van as water rushed downhill past the intersection of Franklin Avenue. No injuries were reported, and the Spectrum technician working nearby was not hurt.
The break was reported at 11:10 a.m. on the 1900 block of Normandie Avenue, according to the Los Angeles Times, which reported the broken pipe was about eight inches in diameter. Water rushed down Normandie Avenue as the roadway buckled beneath it, and as KTLA reported, the flooding did not appear to reach nearby residences. KTLA's Sky5 footage showed the van sinking farther into the damaged pavement as the hole widened beneath it, per the outlet's report.
Street Shut Down as Crews Scrambled to Stop the Flow
Officials shut down Normandie Avenue from Franklin Avenue to DeMille Drive, according to KTLA, so firefighters and Los Angeles Department of Water and Power crews could work the scene. LADWP crews worked to stop the water and assess the damage, the Times reported, while a Spectrum spokesperson told FOX 11 the company would retrieve its van once local officials determined it was safe to do so.
Crews shut off the water Wednesday, and by around 5 p.m. the van had been removed from the sinkhole, though repairs were still underway, City News Service reported. That same account noted the pipe that failed had been installed in 1938, according to DWP. Reports have differed on the number of customers affected: the Times put the figure at about 30, while MyNewsLA reported 31 water customers were affected.
Latest in a String of Breaks Across LA's Aging Pipe Network
The Los Feliz rupture follows a string of recent failures across the city's water system. On Oct. 8, a broken main opened a large hole at the intersection of Kenya Street and Vanalden Avenue in Porter Ranch, the Times reported, and a line that broke July 16 sent millions of gallons onto the Sunset Strip, causing a sinkhole and shutting down Sunset Boulevard and nearby side streets for eight days, with officials estimating up to 200 vehicles damaged.
That same month, a 110-year-old, 36-inch trunk line burst in West Hollywood, releasing an estimated 17 million gallons of water onto streets and nearby properties, according to NBC Los Angeles. The station also reported separate 8-inch main failures in Studio City and Hollywood that left about 60 and 70 customers without water, respectively. In West Hollywood, a break near Palm Avenue and Harratt Street flooded streets and opened a sinkhole, according to LAist, while CBS News Los Angeles reported the sinkhole was on Holloway Drive and Palm Avenue and that about two dozen cars were flooded in one parking garage during that incident.
Aging Pipes Strain Under LADWP's Repair Pace
About 30% of Los Angeles' water-main lines are more than 80 years old, according to LADWP, a fact underscored by the 1938-vintage pipe that failed in Los Feliz. The utility said it replaces about 240,000 feet of mainline pipe and more than 5,200 feet of larger-diameter trunk-line pipe each year, and that it invests nearly $1 billion annually in aging pipeline infrastructure as part of a five-year, $8 billion water system capital plan, per the Times report.
LADWP reported a mid-2026 average of 12.5 leaks per 100 miles of pipe and 547 miles of trunk lines. The agency has said it is working to accelerate replacement and upgrades of aging water mains and riveted-steel trunk lines, though Wednesday's sinkhole on Normandie Avenue is a fresh reminder of how much of that century-old network remains in the ground.
