A reader writes in:"On Sunday, my parents noticed a water-main break on Malden bubbling up into the street, the stretch between Lawrence and Leland, right around 4714. We called it in on Sunday, Monday afternoon, and then Monday evening. Crews didn't show up to fix it until about an hour ago. I
know it's a holiday weekend, but I'm trying to figure out why emergency crews weren't dispatched, seeing as how water was flooding the curb, sending silt up and down the block, and fouling up the nice new asphalt they just put down."
Interesting, I wondered the same thing. I also called it in (to 311) on Sunday afternoon when I noticed it as I was walking my dogs. Most of the water was going down sewage drains, but it still made a little lake along the curb under the cars.
ReplyDeleteI noticed this morning as I was walking the dogs that there was still water bubbling up in the same spot on Malden, though there was less standing water than on Sunday.
And, yes, this is on the stretch of Malden that was torn up for about a month and recently repaved!
That was me, that called it in--thanks for getting it up there so quickly.
ReplyDeleteI don't think this is something we can blame on Shiller--it's the city's Water Department's unresponsiveness that complicated the matter. True, there's no inherent health risk in potent water flooding down the street, but by waiting, they made the damage worse, which could compound repair costs that come out of the taxpayers' pockets.
There's STILL asphalt clogging the storm grate at the entrance to Malden, near the triangular planter thingy (which my girlfriend and I have referred to as Malden's Crotch).
THIS JUST IN:
ReplyDeleteI got an e-mail back from Shiller's office; the rep relayed that the Water Dept. decided not to call crews out, reasons being:
1. Drinking water poses no inherent health risk
2. Holiday-weekend overtime pay is hella expensive
3. With a main break, you're gonna have to rip the street up regardless.
There are thousands of miles of pipeline under the city, much dating back a century or more--this just goes to show the cost of neglecting buried infrastructure. We're just lucky the street didn't collapse, like it did in Ravenswood a few months ago: http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2351/2214748740_df6b8a5759.jpg?v=0
Funny enough -- one of the reasons given for the "necessity" of the Wilson Yard TIF was that Uptown has rotting sewer pipes and aged infrastructure.
ReplyDeleteToo bad none of the $52 million put into it by the taxpayers could be spent to fix this instance of (wait for it) rotting sewer pipes and aged infrastructure. Instead, the City pinches pennies and lets a leak run all weekend while the money that was supposed to go to fix it makes bassackward supermarkets and future slum housing. And no Target and no movie theatres.
Way to spend, Helen! Way to play Twisted Robin Hood!
But....the street was JUST completely ripped up and repaved last month!
ReplyDeleteNow they are going to rip it up again??
More tax dollars at work the "Chicago way"!