Major water main break floods Jackson Square in Boston, streets shut down

A major water main break has flooded Jackson Square in Boston, shutting down streets on the Roxbury-Jamaica Plain line and closing an MBTA busway. 

The break occurred shortly before 3 p.m. on Tuesday and water was still gushing out of the street late into the night. The water partially submerged several cars on the street and some businesses were impacted. 

Boston firefighters helped evacuate three daycares in the area. "They located routes out of the building where it wasn't necessary to step in the water, so we kept everyone dry," said Boston Fire District Chief Joseph Walsh.

Boston police said Columbus Ave. is closed from Heath Street to Armory Street and urged drivers and pedestrians to avoid the area. 

The Boston Water and Sewer Commission said it's a 36-inch pipe that broke, and they were still working to stop the leak late Tuesday night. 

The water line takes drinking water from one side of the city to the other and requires multiple gates to be closed to completely stop the flow of water. "I would guess more than half a mile away to get another series of gates and that's the complication," said Stephen Maloney of Boston Water and Sewer.  

District Chief Walsh anticipated it will take several hours to stop the leak and traffic will be impacted until it's fixed. 

"So, it's several feet in diameter, high gallon per minute flow, so they said even when they do shut it down it's going to take some time to drain out," Walsh said. 

Angel Pena works in the apartment building behind the break and says this is the second time this has happened in four years. "This is worse, 100 percent," Pena said. "Our office, three inches of water all over the place. Papers, computers, everything is wet."

Bruce Marks was working in an office nearby when he saw water start to come in. 

"We've been seeing this going on for over two hours," Marks said. "The fire department came here, they've been great, but they said we can't do anything because of the Water and Sewer, and it's taken over two hours, and you can see it's still flooding here and there is no end in sight." 

At one point, the water was up to the workers' knees as they worked to find drains to clear debris. "It's a difficult time of year, obviously the street sweepers are not out as often so the trash and litter collects," said Walsh. "It clogs those drains up and that's what allowed the water to get up so high so fast."

The MBTA said the Jackson Square busway is temporarily closed due to the water main break. Route 14, 22, 29, 41 and 44 buses are being detoured around the flooded streets. 

DPW crews will be on standby with sanding trucks to deal with any icing after the leak is stopped.