Water-main break in Hauppauge closes road, officials say

A water-main break forced the closure of Route 111 between Townline Road and Route 347 in Hauppauge on Friday morning — and authorities said the road may be closed until midnight.

Suffolk County Water Authority crews and emergency crews from the New York State Department of Transportation are on the scene, assessing damage and making repairs, SCWA spokesman Tim Motz said.

The break occurred at 10:12 a.m.

The water authority said no homes appeared to be affected by the break, but that businesses, including a McDonald’s, Starbucks and a bank, on the east side of Route 111 lost service. Motz said the McDonald’s and Starbucks were forced to close as a result.

The bank remained open, he said.

Motz said stores in a mall on the west side of Route 111 have separate service and were unaffected.

The section of pipe that broke was about 8 to 10 feet long, Motz said. The pipe was cast iron and appears to have been from the 1960s, he said. It was not immediately clear if the break was age-related, he said.

Motz said repairs would take several hours at very least, but could take until midnight because the pavement had buckled in the area — about a 20- to 25-yard section — and that the state Department of Transporation had elected to do a full repaving of that section, instead of making temporary repairs to the road surface.

No vehicles were damaged and, Motz said, there were no reported injuries.

By John Valenti

john.valenti@newsday.com

John Valenti, a reporter at Newsday since 1981, has been honored nationally by the Associated Press and Society of the Silurians for investigative, enterprise and breaking news reporting, as well as column writing, and is the author of “Swee'pea,” a book about former New York playground basketball star Lloyd Daniels. Valenti is featured in the Emmy Award-winning ESPN 30-for-30 film “Big Shot.”