Crews begin towing muddy cars out of garages flooded by the West Hollywood water main break

[00:00:00]Progress being made in West Hollywood.

[00:00:02]Crews filling a massive sinkhole nearly a week after a water main break left homes and businesses with major damage.

[00:00:09]>> CBS LA's Elise Martinez is live in West Hollywood now with the cleanup and where repair stands. Elise?

[00:00:19]Rudy Bay Pat, hi there. We are getting closer to reopening this section of Sunset Boulevard and a major milestone hit today. The sinkhole has been filled with 30 truckloads of concrete slurry.

[00:00:34]Now, that has to set for 24 hours. Up next is putting down the pavement and then another round of water quality testing, which is happening right now.

[00:00:42]But as we get closer to reopening Sunset Boulevard, many residents and businesses here, well, they are still picking up the pieces.

[00:00:54]Five days after a torrent of water from a ruptured water main flooded part of West Hollywood, muddy and damaged cars are finally being towed from underground.

[00:01:04]>> He told everyone. He was the first guy to hear it.

[00:01:06]>> Jengo Stewart's dog Aggie woke him up and he looked outside his window and saw this last Thursday.

[00:01:14]>> My parking lot has like an up ramp, so no water came into my building, but I was just watching everybody's buildings get flooded, like completely flooded.

[00:01:24]>> LADWP says they're making steady progress. The broken water main is sealed and 30 truckloads of slurry mix have been poured into the gaping sinkhole. It has to set for 24 hours before it can be paved over.

[00:01:38]>> A lot of our tasks will be occurring currently. Um, we've been tirelessly working with a schedule to make this as most efficient as possible to hopefully reach, you know, a a goal of opening up Sunset Boulevard. Uh, there is a lot of work going forward, but we are making tremendous progress today.

[00:01:52]>> Dialog Cafe has been closed since the water main break flooded the family owned restaurant.

[00:01:58]>> We were the first thing that water hit and it basically funneled into the restaurant um right off of that broken pipe. So, we were funneled in and then it exited from the back.

[00:02:08]>> It's been here for 18 years and has 90 plus employees who rely on a paycheck.

[00:02:14]The owners faced with uncertainty about when they will open their doors again.

[00:02:19]>> You tell me how long it takes to make a breakfast burrito, I'll tell you how many seconds it takes for every step when it comes to this you know, there's no clear understanding and honestly like what's the right what's the right thing to do?

[00:02:35]>> And that cafe owner tells us there is a GoFundMe for employees as well as getting the business back on its feet.

[00:02:43]Now, we did talk to LADWP just a short time ago and they tell us barring any unexpected issues or delays, they expect to have Sunset Boulevard back open by this Friday or [music] Saturday. Live in West Hollywood, Lisa Martinez, CBS LA.

[00:03:01]>> Good to see some progress. Lisa, thank you.