Pipe bursts inside Hub, complicates morning routines

Workers at the restaurants in the Hub arrived to work Tuesday morning to find water where it shouldn’t have been.

Some time between Monday night and Tuesday morning, an overhead pipe fitting — the space where two pipes connect — broke, and water began flooding in the hallway between the main entrance to the Hub and Chick-fil-A, near the downstairs bathroom, said UF spokesperson John Hines.

The UF physical plant division’s maintenance department was called at about 6:45 a.m. to stop the leak and mop up the water, Hines said. Chick-fil-A, the Hub and the P.O.D. Market remained open throughout the day, but the downstairs bathrooms were closed, and access to Chick-fil-A was limited.

“The hot water leaked down through the roof into the facility,” he said. “They repaired the hot water fitting but they have to let the full area dry before it’s sealed up.”

Hines said he didn’t believe the broken pipe caused water damage.

Maintenance didn’t shut off the onslaught of water until about 8:30 a.m., said a P.O.D. Market employee who declined to give his name for fear of work repercussions. A UF custodian, who also declined to be named for the same reason, said the burst caused part of the ceiling to fall.

“It was coming down hard early this morning when I got to work,” the P.O.D. Market employee said.

UF journalism professor Mike Foley said he walked over to order a coffee with cream and breakfast bagel from Einstein Bros. Bagels when he saw the aftermath of the burst pipe.

About four workers were mopping up a “thick coat of water” when he walked in around 9 a.m., he said. He had to enter Einstein Bros. Bagels from another entrance.

“It was an inconvenience,” he said. “That’s not something you want to come to work and see.”

Students are blocked from the main walkway in the Hub after a pipe burst in between the entrance to the Hub and Chick-fil-A on Tuesday morning.