UPDATE: Water Main Repaired, Banyan Drive Re-Opened

***Updated 7/19 ***

Banyan Drive has been re-opened.

***Updated at 3:50 p.m.***

A spokeswoman for the county Department of Water Supply said this afternoon that repairs on a broken water main underneath Banyan Drive were nearly complete.

Spokeswoman Kanani Aton told Big Island Now that Banyan Drive was expected to be reopened within a half-hour.

The roadway was closed near Reed’s Bay Beach Park after water began bubbling up through the asphalt sometime before 9 a.m. As of about 11:30 a.m., crews still had not located the source of the leak.

The leak was discovered when water began percolating up through the asphalt in the fractured area in the left foreground. Crews dug the hole to the right only to learn that the leak was elsewhere. Photo by Dave Smith.

A member of the crew said preliminary digging showed that the escaping water was traveling a distance between the top layer of asphalt and a second layer, making the task of locating the break more difficult.

Crews were using a listening device placed on the roadway to try to determine the correct spot to dig and isolate the 12-inch water line located more than two feet underground.

Because the water line is pressurized on both ends, only Reed’s Bay Beach Park was left without water service as a result of the break.

Traffic was being allowed onto Banyan Drive only from Lihiwai Street near Queen Liliuokalani Park and as far as the area of the Reed’s Bay Hotel. Motorists entering from the other direction were encountering a roadblock and being asked to turn around near Banyan Way.