Water first appeared on the street Monday morning. Village Department of Public Works Superintendent Dustin Martin said an abandoned water lateral sprung a leak and water spread throughout the street.

A cone was set out where it was leaking up through the asphalt in the afternoon. At 5 p.m., the village blocked off the street from Broadway to Church Street.

Two employees from the village wastewater department and three from the DPW worked from then until 1 a.m. on Tuesday to shut off the water, seal off the no-longer-active lateral and fill the giant hole in the middle of the street with crusher run.

Though it took all night, it was a “pretty quick fix,” village Manager Erik Stender said. By Tuesday morning, the large hole in the street was patched. Martin said the DPW will seal the road with new asphalt later this week.

Saranac Lake village crews dig down to where an abandoned water line sprung a leak on Bloomingdale Avenue on Monday. These people worked from 5 p.m. to 1 a.m. to seal off the unused line and refill the giant hole in the road to make it driveable by Tuesday morning. (Enterprise photo — Aaron Cerbone)

Stender said the boil water order is just a precautionary order. There’s not a serious danger to those using the water, but whenever the village does work on the lines, they send these orders out just to be safe, he said. He added that this order impacts several restaurants and a gas station in the area.

Stender said there’s been an unusual number of water line breaks recently.

“Typically we have a lot of breaks in the wintertime,” he said. “For some reason this year we’re having a lot of breaks in the middle of the summer. … It’s just the age of the system.”

Saranac Lake village crews dig down to where an abandoned water line sprung a leak on Bloomingdale Avenue on Monday. These people worked from 5 p.m. to 1 a.m. to seal off the unused line and refill the giant hole in the road to make it driveable by Tuesday morning. (Enterprise photo — Aaron Cerbone)