The collapse of a section of Portage Bay Place East from a burst water main yesterday morning has resulted in the temporary closure of the University Bridge.

The incident, which submerged two cars in a sinkhole, resulted in transportation complications, potential structural damage to the bridge and water service problems in the surrounding areas, including residence halls and student apartments west of the UW's main campus. No injuries were reported.

The break caused water to be shut off to several customers in the area, concentrated near Northeast Boat Street. Bottled water was provided for the time being, but service was soon restored to the affected areas, Seattle Public Utilities Spokesperson Andy Ryan said. He cautioned these customers to be wary of suspicious-looking water.

"We didn't have a huge outage there — just some customers on the south side of the bridge," Ryan said. "If people see discolored water, they probably don't want to drink it. It's not unsafe, but it probably won't taste very good."

Many residents have indeed reported discoloration and other problems with their running water.

"Our water was brown for awhile, ... [and] I guess there have been power outages," said senior Vanessa Tubbs, who lives in Eastlake just south of the damage site.

No long-term damages to the bridge have been reported, although an investigation into its structural integrity by the Seattle Department of Transportation is underway.

"[Pipe leaks in Seattle] are remarkably rare," Ryan said. "Seattle has arguably the lowest rate of these incidents in the world."

Although authorities take the leak seriously, there are no plans to prompt improvements in the water or bridge systems.

"These things do happen, but they happen rarely," Ryan said. "There's no reason to believe this is an indicator of bad things to come."

Despite prompt action, several residents of the surrounding area experienced problems with transportation. Tubbs said she had to find an alternate route to her job in downtown Seattle.

"One of the main issues was the bus to school," she said. "All the buses that go across the bridge weren't working, so it was a big hassle to have to walk."

As a result of the bridge closure, traffic was diverted and other routes became congested.

"There was a lot more traffic in general because it was all diverted to the Montlake Bridge instead of the University Bridge," she said. "Getting downtown was hard because ... none of the 70 buses were running."

Tubbs said she and other area residents were surprised at the incident, which she noted was an atypical occurrence.

"It was so unusual to hear that our bridge is falling apart," she said. "I guess it's just because of the bad weather we've been having. I've never really had this happen to me."

Regardless of the inconvenience, Tubbs said she was grateful the damage wasn't worse and hopes it might bring light to bigger problems.

"It's kind of interesting to see how the city responds," she said. "You see these national disasters, [but] we've done pretty well [in handling smaller ones]. My life wasn't totally upset, and it's good to see we're responsive in some sense. There's definitely a lot of improvements that could happen [to prevent bigger disasters]."

Reach reporter Jeff Tripoli at news@thedaily.washington.edu.