Crews have successfully repaired a large water main break at the intersection of Summerhill Road and Main Street in Spotswood.

The break occurred in a six-inch cast iron pipe, roughly the size of a Nerf football, and was caused by the pipe's age and the freeze-thaw cycle.

It took crews around seven hours to stop the water from flowing, with difficulties arising from the presence of other utility lines, including a fiber optic cable and a storm pipe.

Crews had to dig by hand to access the pipe, and their efforts were further complicated by the fact that they had worked in Sayreville and New Brunswick the previous day, returning to the site in Spotswood by 1 a.m.

Summerhill Road was shut down during the repair but has since reopened.

According to Josh Kamis from the Middlesex County Office of Public Works, "It's old infrastructure sometimes, most likely in this case it's really freeze thaw, it's that time of year."