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Podcasts Take Two
Main break in Hollywood highlight's LA's aging water pipes
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Feb 18, 2015
Listen • 6:13
Main break in Hollywood highlight's LA's aging water pipes
About one-fifth of the city's water pipes are more than 80-years-old. The Department of Water and Powers wants to replace deteriorating pipes in the next ten years
LADWP crews let pressure off the water main break on Dix Street and Holly Drive after a water main break submerged cars on Wednesday, February 18, 2015.
LADWP crews let pressure off the water main break on Dix Street and Holly Drive after a water main break submerged cars on Wednesday, February 18, 2015.
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Maya Sugarman/ KPCC
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About one-fifth of the city's water pipes are more than 80-years-old. The Department of Water and Powers wants to replace deteriorating pipes in the next ten years

The busted pipe in the Hollywood Hills is certainly not the first water main to break, and it won't be the last. 

Last year, there was a water main break near UCLA that flooded several streets on Sunset, closing off streets.

There are more than a quarter-million pipes in the Department of Water and Power's 6,730-mile water main network. Since 2006, work crews have responded to about 13,000 leaks, that's about four a day.

Reporter Ben Poston has been digging into the numbers of our aging infrastructure for the Los Angeles Times and he joined the show to explain.