Montrose Water Main Breaks, Street Caves In

By Laura Oppenheimer in News on Jan 22, 2008 3:20PM

Today would be an excellent day to take the CTA, if you happen to be planning on driving anywhere from, or to, Lincoln Square or Ravenswood. A water main broke on Montrose under the Montrose Brown Line stop at 1:30 a.m. (or 12:30, if you like to believe the Sun-Times) last night, causing an enormous part of the street to collapse in, and partially submerging several cars. Also causing water to run down Montrose and Wolcott. Also causing the snow from last night to turn into a disgusting brown sludge that runs from Damen past Ravenswood. The street, obviously, is closed for the time being, as workmen attempt to fill the hole with sand.

What is now disgusting brown sludge, was, according to the Trib, a "virtual river," last night. At this point, officials don't know what caused the 36-inch pipe to break, though it may be weather-related. The Brown Line was closed, but is now open, and the Damen bus is back to running its regular route, while the Montrose bus has been rerouted. Also, Chicagoist-favorite Beans & Bagels is throwing in the towel today, due to the outside mess, but was nice enough to leave out a big urn of coffee for the hardworking repair crew.

Update: Chicagoist's office just got a call from the city: Montrose will be closed from Ashland to Western for the next week, as they try to fill in the whole and clean up the mess.

Scary image of the Montrose collapse via TheeErin. Image of the sign at Beans & Bagels from the author.