Under the same downtown Minneapolis avenue where the Gay 90's nightclub operates sits a cast-iron pipe laid during the actual Gay '90s period that had an unintended bite taken out of it.
The city Wednesday released a photograph of the damage to the pipe that burst last Thursday afternoon under Hennepin Avenue, sending 14 million gallons of water gushing into streets and parking lots.
The photo shows the circa 1891 pipe, 3 feet in diameter, sporting a hole 6 feet in length.
The break at Hennepin Avenue and N. 2nd Street is being blamed on a private contractor working at a nearby apartment-retail development. The contractor was boring under the street to install a sleeve for a sewer line linking the new building to the city's sewer system when its machinery hit the water pipe.
A vast majority of the city's water mains were laid before 1920, a public works official said.
PAUL WALSH
