Major flooding on Leuvenlaan
Photo: Mark Snoek
A considerable amount of water flowed to the Leuvenlaan avenue due to a water pipe bursting at P5, on Thursday morning, June 10. The university immediately called in the emergency services and evacuated the surrounding area. The flood caused holes in the road: a car sunk into one of them and had to be towed out of it.
The water pipe was closed as of Thursday afternoon. As a result, there was no water supply in a number of buildings in the vicinity of Leuvenlaan: the Educatorium, the Ruppert Building, the David de Wied Building, the Kruyt Building, the Bloembergen Building and the Administration Building. The sprinkler systems also ceased to work. According to spokesperson Maarten Post, extra surveillance would be carried out to guarantee fire safety.
Researchers who had connected installations to the drinking water network as part of their research were asked to check them. At around 10.30 am, Vitens managed to contain the leak and the pressure could gradually be resumed.The next step was investigating whether the water mains could be switched on again.