Water main break near UWM campus floods busy intersection

A water main near the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee campus installed eight decades ago broke Tuesday morning, flooding the area and shutting down a busy intersection.

The 16-inch water main broke late morning at the intersection of Oakland and Kenwood avenues, said Milwaukee Department of Public Works spokeswoman Sandy Rusch Walton.

The intersection is expected to remain closed for some time because DPW crews will need to dig down to find out what happened and repair the water main.

In the meantime water is shut off for residents living on one block of E. Kenwood between Oakland and Bartlett, said Rusch Walton. Residents living on Oakland Ave. are not affected because their water comes from a different main.

The water main was installed in 1936. Records show only one other report, in the winter of 2012, of problems with the water main at that location.

A manager at Sal's Pizza said the flooding actually helped business.

"We got really busy today. People were coming in for slices, having a nice river side dinner," said Ian Tousey, manager of Sal's Pizza, 2974 N. Oakland Ave.