Sunday, August 23, 2009

Alley Collapse At Dover & Sunnyside

Several readers have written in now about an apparent collapse (sewer?) in the alley near Sunnyside and Dover.
"Big commotion at SW corner of Dover and Sunnyside. No less than 12 full size CFD vehicles, assorted CFD SUV's, quite a few CPD. Clark St. blocked off between Wilson and Montrose. Sunnyside blocked off as well. I asked someone what was going on. A plumber was doing some work. I'm guessing in the basement. Some type of cave in occurred. Wasn't able to stick around."
Please add any other info or updates in the comments.

Update: Chicago Breaking News Center has all the details here.
Update #2: A reader sends in a photo showing emergency crews on the scene of the collapse.
Update #3: The Lake Effect News covers the story in-depth here.

9 comments:

  1. A crew was out today at 4452 N Dover working on installing a flood control system to help protect one of the buildings in the area from the city's crumbling sewer infrastructure(you know, that type of thing that a certain TIF is supposed to fix). This requires a rather deep hole to be dug. The hold collapsed with two of the men inside. One man has been rescued and is reported to be in stable condition. The other man is said to be ok, and firemen say he'll be out within the hour and should be in stable condition.

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  2. I think he is going to be fine. They pulled him out about an hour ago.

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  3. Here are a couple videos of the fireman pulling the second guy out.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4_WR6NzSMxY

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3JpA7pKb2F8&feature=channel

    The first guy still doesn't have feeling in his right leg yet.

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  4. Thank you for sharing Eagle. Inspiring.

    Another great story from Gene Schulter's ward. Amen.

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  5. While I am incredibly grateful that both workers made it out of the collapsed hole, I am disappointed that Water Management couldn’t have secured the hole tonight, thus leaving it up to the police to “stand guard” over it all night (although maybe I should be thankful that this means our cars out back won’t be broken into tonight like they were last week?). I can think of only a 1,000,000 other things these officers could be doing, but are forced to do this! Excellent use of man power- City of Chicago!

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  6. Sorry to hear about this and hope everyone is o.k. Chicago was built on a swamp. All you urban hipsters, read up a little bit more.

    Many of these structures and facilities are 100+ years old and have seen their life. They are functionally obsolete and, quite frankly, dangerous.

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  7. Dear Schulter Side of Dover,

    You have a nasty habit of speaking to things that you know absolutely nothing about, so let me hit you with some knowledge.

    1) We now have a disaster scene on our hands, that requires a whole new set of procedures. Water management can't just pour the dirt back in the hole.

    2) Since this caused a workplace safety issue, OSHA needs to come out, with a structural engineer and make sure everything is safe enough for people to work on. There were no federal OSHA people, not structural engineers available on a Sunday night, so the only the city could do was have a cop stand guard all night to make sure the scene wasn't disturbed. Everyone involved was assured that OSHA would be out first thing in the morning. I know you love big government, so you should understand why OSHA needs to get involved.

    Next time you should spend a few minutes talking to your neighbors rather than deriding them behind their backs, its a much more effective way to build relationships and get a good idea of whats going on in your community.

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  8. Sorry "Windy City Eagle", I didn't think I was deriding you or anyone else, in fact, I was very open for discussion yesterday but only got dirty looks from you so I didn't feel very obligated to come over for a neighborly "chat"

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  9. "I am disappointed that Water Management couldn’t have secured the hole tonight,"

    This was on private property, the company doing the work and/or the building is responsible for securing the site. Water Management or any other city dept. is in no way responsible or liable for what happened. In fact in addition to osha fines whoever did this work should be hit with backcharges from the Water dept. for the use of equipment and time.

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