Water main break fixed in downtown Elgin

An early morning water main break along State Street in downtown Elgin Friday caused basements to flood and traffic to be detoured before being fixed early in the afternoon, officials said.

Elgin city spokeswoman Sue Olafson said the 4-inch main broke around 7:30 a.m. Friday along State between Highland Avenue and Chicago Street.

Westbound traffic on Highland was being detoured at Grove Avenue; northbound and southbound traffic along State was not affected.

Some of the businesses with flooded basements remained open.

She said the break was not caused by crews on the Highland Avenue water main project because they are on strike.

"There is no construction going on. (But) because of the aging infrastructure, sometimes the water mains do rupture," she said.

Connie Bello, a server at El Faro, 9 N. State St., said water flooded the turnaround street in front of the Mexican restaurant Friday morning and up on the sidewalk - but fortunately none got inside the business.