Water main break downtown leaves 2 hotels without water
A water main break in downtown Austin left two hotels — the Four Seasons and the Line Hotel — without running water for about 25 hours over the weekend.
A leak was reported as a “non-emergency” earlier last week and crews touched based with hotels on Wednesday to "try to minimize the impact on businesses," according to Austin Water spokesperson Ginny Guerrero.
Repairs were set to start Sunday afternoon, Guerrero said, but the leak worsened on Friday and concern was "upgraded to a Priority 1."
On Friday, it was determined there was a break somewhere in a 24-inch water line along E. Cesar Chavez Street, she said. Water to the Four Seasons Hotel had to be turned off, and the Line Hotel experienced intermittent outages, Guerrero said.
Crews started repairing the water line at 11 p.m. on Friday; water was cut off at midnight.
For crews to fix the main, Cesar Chavez was closed between Brazos Street and San Jacinto Boulevard beginning Friday afternoon.
On Saturday night, Austin Water officials said the leak had been located. Repairs were completed at 12:15 a.m. Sunday and water services were fully restored by 1 a.m., officials said.
Guerrero said crews had to dig into 12 inches of concrete to reach soil, and then another 4 to 5 inches to reach the water line to find the break.
Officials from Four Seasons and the Line Hotel did not return calls for comment on Sunday.
On Saturday evening, a Line Hotel worker said, "We are open, but we have no water."
This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: Water main break downtown leaves 2 hotels without water
