Re: [UC] Sinkhole is open and getting bigger on 44th between Spruce Pine
In a message dated 8/25/2010 9:41:50 P.M. Eastern Daylight Time, anthony_w...@earthlink.net writes: Gary Jastrzab, on UCNeighbors, reported a couple of hours ago: This was patched as of early this evening. I called it in to 311 at least three weeks ago. At least it is finally repaired. -- Tony West Not true. The hole is still there and getting worse. The car with the tire in the hole is still there because it's blocked in by other cars front and back so the towing company called by the owner couldn't get it out. More cops were out last night -- called by the owner of the car with the tire in the hole but they couldn't do anything except put up one more orange traffic cone. Please pass this on to the other list. - Alan Krigman KRF Management, ICON/Information Concepts Inc 211 S 45th St, Philadelphia PA 19104-2918 215-349-6500, fax 215-349-6502 krf...@aol.com or al.krig...@krf.icodat.com
Re: [UC] Sinkhole is open and getting bigger on 44th between Spruce Pine
In a message dated 8/26/2010 7:27:51 A.M. Eastern Daylight Time, krf...@aol.com writes: In a message dated 8/25/2010 10:08:50 P.M. Eastern Daylight Time, m...@nervous.org writes: No, I just walked my dog past it 10 minutes ago, and it is still swallowing an SUV's front end. We are not talking about the patch in the middle of 44th closer to Spruce that is now paved over. Anyway, this hole will take some major work, not a patch that can be put into place over night. In fact, because of its proximity to the hole mentioned above in the middle of 44th St close to Spruce, it wouldn't be unreasonable to assume that there's something wrong with the storm drain under Pine or closer to Pine under 44th St that's causing the ground to give way, and a lot of the street will have to be dug up. - Alan Krigman KRF Management, ICON/Information Concepts Inc 211 S 45th St, Philadelphia PA 19104-2918 215-349-6500, fax 215-349-6502 krf...@aol.com or al.krig...@krf.icodat.com
Re: [UC] Sinkhole is open and getting bigger on 44th between Spruce Pine
In a message dated 8/26/2010 10:56:59 A.M. Eastern Daylight Time, mlam...@aol.com writes: Hi, Al, here's a question: are you calling 311 to report it and/or follow up on it? Remember, they assign the report a number you can call them back to follow up on it, and they hold the departments accountable if the departments don't do anything. This seems pretty urgent, and it seems that 311 could be helpful. Thanks. I started by calling 311, who transferred me to the water department emergency line, who had me on hold for almost 10 minutes before they took the info. After over an hour, nobody showed, so one of my crew called 911 to get a cop, thinking they could at least put up a barricade where the pavement was covering a cave with no support. The cops came, called the Streets Dept, and left (no barricade... just a few traffic cones my guys put up). I called John Fenton, late in the day. He made some calls, which came through to the extent that he did get their attention (their short attention span attention) and today we had multiple inspectors from the water and streets depts, who made some measurements and tests then said it was a big job that maybe the Highway Dept should handle, and they also left. More of the pavement is caving in. They said there was an old sewer line onto 44th St from my house... and there's certainly a pipe down there. But my sewer line goes onto Spruce Street -- I have no idea where the one they saw comes from, but not my house. There was once a convent taking up most of the block between 44th 43rd, Spruce and Pine, so maybe it was theirs. Of course, that was 94 years ago. At any rate, no sewer line could cause this much erosion -- it has to be a bad storm drain. In the meantime, it's still a danger spot and I'm concerned that a car or possibly a heavy truck is going to crash another hole through the pavement above the cave and get swallowed -- causing damage at least and possibly injury (or worse). There doesn't seem to be any water down there right now so a vehicle crashing through won't cause anyone to drown... but I could easily see a situation where someone would be trapped inside and unable to open their doors or have enough space to get out of a window. Also, when the inspectors were here, they found that the erosion had opened a tunnel between the place where the pavement is open now, and the sink hole about 25 feet away, in the middle of the street closer to Spruce, that they fixed about two weeks ago. So, when they found the first sink hole, they didn't bother checking to see what had caused it or they would have found the tunnel from that end. The whole thing may become a real nightmare and disaster. It has me very worried. Al Krigman
RE: [UC] Sinkhole is open and getting bigger on 44th between Spruce Pine
How about contacting the media? The TV stations might be interested. From: krf...@aol.com Date: Thu, 26 Aug 2010 16:26:49 -0400 Subject: Re: [UC] Sinkhole is open and getting bigger on 44th between Spruce Pine To: mlam...@aol.com; UnivCity@list.purple.com In a message dated 8/26/2010 10:56:59 A.M. Eastern Daylight Time, mlam...@aol.com writes: Hi, Al, here's a question: are you calling 311 to report it and/or follow up on it? Remember, they assign the report a number you can call them back to follow up on it, and they hold the departments accountable if the departments don't do anything. This seems pretty urgent, and it seems that 311 could be helpful. Thanks. I started by calling 311, who transferred me to the water department emergency line, who had me on hold for almost 10 minutes before they took the info. After over an hour, nobody showed, so one of my crew called 911 to get a cop, thinking they could at least put up a barricade where the pavement was covering a cave with no support. The cops came, called the Streets Dept, and left (no barricade... just a few traffic cones my guys put up). I called John Fenton, late in the day. He made some calls, which came through to the extent that he did get their attention (their short attention span attention) and today we had multiple inspectors from the water and streets depts, who made some measurements and tests then said it was a big job that maybe the Highway Dept should handle, and they also left. More of the pavement is caving in. They said there was an old sewer line onto 44th St from my house... and there's certainly a pipe down there. But my sewer line goes onto Spruce Street -- I have no idea where the one they saw comes from, but not my house. There was once a convent taking up most of the block between 44th 43rd, Spruce and Pine, so maybe it was theirs. Of course, that was 94 years ago. At any rate, no sewer line could cause this much erosion -- it has to be a bad storm drain. In the meantime, it's still a danger spot and I'm concerned that a car or possibly a heavy truck is going to crash another hole through the pavement above the cave and get swallowed -- causing damage at least and possibly injury (or worse). There doesn't seem to be any water down there right now so a vehicle crashing through won't cause anyone to drown... but I could easily see a situation where someone would be trapped inside and unable to open their doors or have enough space to get out of a window. Also, when the inspectors were here, they found that the erosion had opened a tunnel between the place where the pavement is open now, and the sink hole about 25 feet away, in the middle of the street closer to Spruce, that they fixed about two weeks ago. So, when they found the first sink hole, they didn't bother checking to see what had caused it or they would have found the tunnel from that end. The whole thing may become a real nightmare and disaster. It has me very worried. Al Krigman
Re: [UC] Sinkhole is open and getting bigger on 44th between Spruce Pine
Gary Jastrzab, on UCNeighbors, reported a couple of hours ago: This was patched as of early this evening. I called it in to 311 at least three weeks ago. At least it is finally repaired. -- Tony West On 8/25/2010 5:47 PM, krf...@aol.com wrote: I sent this earlier with some photos, but haven't seen it on the list yet, so I'm re-sending it without pictures. A sinkhole has opened on the east side of 44th, about 40 ft south of Spruce (headed toward Pine). One wheel of a car parked at the curb is already in it. The visible part of the hole is the complement of the tip of the iceberg. There's still a layer of pavement covering a big underground cave extending up 44th toward Pine and also out toward the middle of the street. The concrete frame of a sewer seems to be the only thing holding the roadway up. It would be best to avoid driving on this block of 44th if at all possible. You wouldn't like it if your car went into a hole. FYI -- we called the city at about 9:30 this morning to report this. We also called the police -- who came and called the problem into the Streets Dept. Our workers tole me a Streets Dept supervisor came out and looked. But nothing has been done. We (not the city) put out some traffic cones. Candidly, I'm more than a little concerned about someone getting hurt (not to mention my house falling into the hole!). Al Krigman PS: Anyone on the barking cheese list... please cross-post this.
Re: [UC] Sinkhole is open and getting bigger on 44th between Spruce Pine
No, I just walked my dog past it 10 minutes ago, and it is still swallowing an SUV's front end. We are not talking about the patch in the middle of 44th closer to Spruce that is now paved over. On Wed, Aug 25, 2010 at 9:40 PM, Anthony West anthony_w...@earthlink.net wrote: Gary Jastrzab, on UCNeighbors, reported a couple of hours ago: This was patched as of early this evening. I called it in to 311 at least three weeks ago. At least it is finally repaired. -- Tony West On 8/25/2010 5:47 PM, krf...@aol.com wrote: I sent this earlier with some photos, but haven't seen it on the list yet, so I'm re-sending it without pictures. A sinkhole has opened on the east side of 44th, about 40 ft south of Spruce (headed toward Pine). One wheel of a car parked at the curb is already in it. The visible part of the hole is the complement of the tip of the iceberg. There's still a layer of pavement covering a big underground cave extending up 44th toward Pine and also out toward the middle of the street. The concrete frame of a sewer seems to be the only thing holding the roadway up. It would be best to avoid driving on this block of 44th if at all possible. You wouldn't like it if your car went into a hole. FYI -- we called the city at about 9:30 this morning to report this. We also called the police -- who came and called the problem into the Streets Dept. Our workers tole me a Streets Dept supervisor came out and looked. But nothing has been done. We (not the city) put out some traffic cones. Candidly, I'm more than a little concerned about someone getting hurt (not to mention my house falling into the hole!). Al Krigman PS: Anyone on the barking cheese list... please cross-post this. You are receiving this because you are subscribed to the list named UnivCity. To unsubscribe or for archive information, see http://www.purple.com/list.html.
