“I brought this up in the past, and one of the responses from city staff was, ‘Well, what do you want us to do, open cut it?’ Well, yeah perhaps,” Dare said to his fellow councilmembers. “There’s other things that can be done, but utility companies like to use boring because it’s cheaper and you don’t have to pave, but you end up with holes every 30 or 40 feet.”
Dare brought the matter to council after witnessing the issues with the storm drain near 93rd Street and Arctic Avenue. Sometime before the State Highway Administration started its multi-million-dollar paving project on Coastal Highway, Sandpiper Energy installed a new natural gas main under the road.
Shortly after the SHA finished paving, and Cruisin’ Ocean City had wrapped up, a sinkhole appeared near the storm drain at the intersection, officials said. Currently, a steel plate lies over the hole until Sandpiper returns to investigate the issue.
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3 comments:
Here's a thought: allow boring but hold the utility companies to maintaining and repairing the utility patches until the next full repaving.
1:43 Here is a thought, make them open cut the pavement, and keep patching it until someone can repave a good amount of area... I think open cut is best only becasue if there are other utilities in the area, you might be able to see the pipes and notice if one is leaking or needs to be replaced...
I was traveling down Whitesville road in Delmar, and they were paving a vast amount of that roadway, they being the paver's could not wait not even 2 days so that some storm pipes could be replaced, instead they paved the roadway and one day later, came back and open cut the road and installed storm pipes and then patched the road... The problem is when they patch they don't do it right and the patch where the storm pipe is settles, and dips below the actual elevation of the roadway, this also causes drainage problems becasue the roads are designed with a 2 percent cross slope and when you patch, they don't worry about the cross slopes and it makes more problems, not to mention if the water were to flood in that area, and since this area has been flooding due to storms, the pipes could very well be forced out of the ground and that that patch pavement with it...
As long as the boring company is held responsible for damages, it's all good. We've spent a lot of money on Miss Utility and Locatoe Services, so boring should be a cheap, easy, and safe way to install new utilities.
Will there be accidents? Of course! You all drive cars, don't you? THERE'S ACCIDENTS!
That's why drivers and borers have insurance policies.
That's how it all works!
Legislators should stay out of the Construction business!
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