ATLANTIC CITY — Residents and business owners in the Chelsea neighborhood were without running water Wednesday due to a break in the city’s main water system.
G. Bruce Ward, executive director of the Atlantic City Municipal Utilities Authority, said his office started receiving reports from residents without water about 1:45 p.m.
“There are two major breaks to a water main pipe to the city — one that goes to the area around the Convention Center and the other goes along Albany Avenue,” Ward said Wednesday afternoon, “our objective is to, one, repair that pipe and, two, to bypass that pipe and move water through the system to get to the areas that do not have sufficient pressure at this time.”
Ward said the break was caused by construction equipment in the waterway making contracted repairs to the Albany Avenue bridge.
Fire Chief Scott Evans said the situation was improving by Wednesday evening.
“We are anticipating normal operating pressure will be restored by this evening,” said Evans, who estimated significant improvement would be seen by 9 p.m. Wednesday. “All reports, across the city, are that the pressure is increasing.”
Although the system was not fully repaired, Evans said the main 40-inch water main pipe would be able to supply water to the entire city.
Elvis Cadavid, general manager of Vagabond Kitchen & Tap House on West End Avenue, said he had received a call from his neighbor about 12:30 p.m. asking whether he had water. Cadavid said by the time he got to his house two blocks away from the restaurant, his employees were calling him saying the running water had stopped.
The Atlantic City school district canceled all after school programs due to the water issue, according to a message on its website.
“It’s a novel problem we’ve never had happen before,” said Ward.
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