FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. – Bayview Drive in Fort Lauderdale reopened Friday morning after two sewer main breaks caused heavy flooding.
City spokesman Chaz Adams said workers have isolated the sewer main breaks and would be making repairs to the pipes Friday.
The break at George English Park caused heavy flooding on Bayview Drive across from the Galleria at Fort Lauderdale.
Residents in the area complained about the smell of sewage.
"It is actually really gross and scares me, considering I have to walk by it and I have a child," Brandy Boots, who lives nearby, said. "It is not safe. It is disgusting."
Another sewer main broke at Southeast 10th Avenue and Southeast Second Street near downtown.
The two sewer main breaks forced the city to issue one of the largest precautionary water advisories in its history, from north of Oakland Park Boulevard to Interstate 595 and from Interstate 95 East to A-1-A, not including the beaches.
"We are asking folks to avoid swimming, jet skiing, fishing and similar water-related recreational activities," Chaz Adams from the city of Fort Lauderdale said. "Boating should be limited. As long as they are not getting into the water it is probably OK."
Waterworks expert David Waters said Fort Lauderdale's corroding ductile iron sewer system will continue to have big breaks unless it begins to transition to non-corrosive pipes.
"In Florida, since the mid 90s, there is hundreds of thousands of feet of large diameter PVC pipe installed for this application, for sewer, where you eliminate the corrosion," Waters said.
Fort Lauderdale officials said they use PVC for smaller pipes because of pressure concerns with larger diameter pipes.