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Crews Working To Repair West Mifflin Water Main Break

WEST MIFFLIN (KDKA) – A water main break in West Mifflin caused some problems Friday morning.

According to officials at the scene, the break happened near the intersection of Cherry and School Streets around 5 a.m.

The water was quickly shut off, but the break caused a big hole to open up in the road.

A truck drove right over the break site and became stuck in the hole for a period of time. The driver was left soaking wet, but was able to get out uninjured.

"I'm just glad no one got hurt. Because looking at it from here, I didn't think it was going to be that bad," Michelle Hazlett said.

Penn American Water's Gary Lobaugh said the 8-inch cast iron main is roughly 70 years old.

"This is old pipe reaching the end of its useful life span," Lobaugh said.

"It kind of sounded like a bulldozer scraping the street and there has been water main breaks around so I didn't even think anything of it," Hazlett said.

Neighbors weren't sure at first if they would lose water. In the end, 10 customers were affected by the break.

But, there were several vehicles parked along the street that were hit by rocks and debris when the asphalt broke.

"Any damage that was done to the homes or property will be the responsibility of the water company to restore," Lobaugh said.

"It's really bad. I didn't realize how bad it was. It's a big mess for sure. I'll be surprised if it's back on when they said, by mid-day," Linda Grieb said.

Penn American has actually been in the neighborhood, a few blocks away, doing work. They said there have been no interruptions or changes in pressure with that work that would have caused this break.

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