The Silver Spring Penguin

A punctured pipe sent water swishing beneath Spring Street Wednesday afternoon and caused water pressure to drop in nearby buildings.

The break happened around 2:00 p.m. along Spring Street between Colesville Road and Cameron Street, a worker with the Washington Suburban Sanitary Commission said on the scene. Construction crews in the area may have punctured the pipe while digging, the worker said.

The block is an active work zone. The pharmaceutical company United Therapeutics is constructing new facilities on the north and south corners of Cameron at Spring Streets, and a residential building is going up on Cameron just west of Spring. Renovations are also planned for the public garage on Spring and Colesville Road.

By 4:00 p.m., employees and patients at a dentist’s office on Spring Street noticed the drop in water pressure. And at 5:00 p.m., brown water was seen gushing from a clean cut in the street surface. There appeared to be no flooding associated with the water main break.

The WSSC website on Thursday morning did not list any problems in the neighborhood.

Photo by Ron Pace/SSP.