I happened to be present when these 3 storm drain manholes were "repaired" by Public Works.
The manhole covers had sunken below the pavement level because of some failure below, and the concrete around them had broken up. As I watched the jackhammer crews breaking up the old concrete and pulling it out of the hole around the manhole cover, I noticed that a concrete truck was waiting on the side street, and the crew at the first location was already pouring the new concrete, even though the manholes had not been brought up to the proper elevation, nor had anything below been looked at or corrected.
Since that time when all 3 were re-poured at their existing sunken elevation, they have been breaking peoples' shocks for almost 2 years, and now are back to the same condition.
Less than two years! I called it shoddy workmanship then, and this proves it. Without fixing the broken roadbed and infrastructure below, this is what you get, a total waste of our money. There's no reason that this repair shouldn't last 20 years!
13 comments:
This is exactly what happens when government goes for the lowest price. They get the lowest quality product.
there is ZERO FUNDS THANKS to welfare funds,
Maybe if they didn't take 3 years to replace curb and sidewalk along 13 south and then will take another 3 years to repair the other side...
This is what happens when all you care about is making new roads without upkeep of the other existing roads...
Yes lets keep adding developments, for tax money revenue and whilst we do that, we will just let the rest of SBY rot until we have dirt roads again, and maybe we can tax the citizens to pay to repair the roads?
I mean lets just throw out the fact that we pay taxes for services the city refuse to provide then taxes you more to provide the same service they denied...
It is always about the money and it will never stop, that is why it is a circle... A bunch of knuckleheads with each others head in the others ass...
Having worked on roads for over 20 years I have yet to see a concrete or asphalt that is designed to last for 20 years of road use. Hell for that matter 10 years.
You live on a peninsula people get used to these types of things. Your barely above sea level and our water table can be as much as 5 ft below ground level. Then add a manhole box that could weigh over 2 thousand pounds. What do you think is going to happen?
Just in case you want to know the proper fix would Intel ripping the whole street up because not only has the manhole sunk but the 3 to 4 foot pipes connected to it has as well. Hence the temporary fix that might have cost 1.500.00 verses 150.000.00 this pending how far back the piping would have to be fixed. Now I don't know about you but I'm down for the simple fix considering more then half of all manholes on the shore and even streets sink an inch or two within two years of install.
By the way if your car is breaking shocks on what I see in the pictures you need to stop buying cheap shocks.
I love when people pretend to know other peoples work isn't done right and don't have a clue what the fix actually is and what it cost. Spend ,spend and then spend some more then cry about spending seems to be the American way now days. Get over it it's nothing more then a bump in the road. Literally.
10:15 am. I called County Rds. last year on same problem at College Ave. and Snow Hill Rd. on the manholes developing at this location. There seemed to be a mix up who it belonged to, City, County, or State Rds. It was repaired after couple mos. Drive over the same area today and the same problems are there. I agree with the writer and any fix only last for a short time. Takes 4/5 workers 2 trucks and nothing last.
You get what you pay for. And you people don't want to pay for much!
11:12
I can tell you work for roads because you are awfully smart but can't spell for anything!
Jokes aside, thanks for sharing!
11:12, I wrote this article and took those pictures. And if you worked roads for 20 years, you must have been the one holding the slow/stop sign.
I have been doing hands on and as a superintendent for 40 years and have set and repaired these structures in roadways many times. I know that the water table in this area is about minus 16 feet, having overseen the digging of the basement for the latest hospital wing. I also know that soil needs to have a certain moisture content to reach 95% compaction, and to set a structure on a foot thick stone bed. I also know that many of Salisbury's storm drains and pipes are laid brick, not precast concrete. A look back at the ones I installed are just fine here today, 20 years later. Oh, and concrete lasts around 30-50 years just fine, if installed properly.
Looking at the photos above, you should be able to see that the lid and ring are still level, just lower than the road surface, which means that the whole structure is intact and either has settled evenly over the years, or repaving was done too high. I know how, before pouring this concrete back, to toss a 2x4 over the excavated hole, get a crowbar and lift it up to even with the 2x4 and shim it there using the crumbs of the broken concrete I just jack hammered. That way when the big trucks roll over it, it's just a smooth roll, and not a hard impact as the wheel goes down to the low lid and back up to the road level.
You know what destroys concrete? Impact! Maybe too techhy for you, though.
The second picture clearly shows that the lid is tilted. A quick look and you can see why; the concrete road slab under the asphalt has heaved in the past during the heat of summer, and pushed the lid assembly enough to either break some of the bricks loose under it or pushed it off center of the structure below. You can clearly see the slab beyond heaving up to top of asphalt level and the cracked joint continuing beyond. I watches this being "repaired" in 5/13, and the lid was tilted back then and never righted, and all the heaves and cracking looked just the same as it does now. The impact of the wheels is what broke the new concrete collar they poured back. Taking an extra hour to smooth out, stabilize, and level everything would have prevented this damage, and the patch would still be in decent shape today. In reality, that heave should have been corrected back then to get rid of the void under it.
The third? Left low and poured back without leveling, causing a pot hole, wheel impact, and the resulting breaking in half. And the small breaks on the near side? One look should tell you that the soil between the catch basin and the manhole is unstable and needs to have 6 or 8 inches taken out and new compacted material put in its place before putting the road back on top of it.
Shoddy rush job. They were only there for about 5-6 hours for the whole job, but I'm sure they got their 8 in that day. And, no, it was not contracted out. If it had been, the contractor would have gotten a call to come back and do the job correctly under his warranty.
Instead, Salisbury sticks you with this.
Oh, here comes a few cars; turn your sign so the STFU side is facing you!
Personally, I think city residents would do much better if we voted collectively at the polls to get rid of the city municipality in favor of the county providing the necessary services. We would only pay county taxes and eliminate all together the city and its terrible administration.
City police, city fire, and emergency personnel along with existing city personnel could be absorbed into existing areas. It would be run much better and we would actually have real leadership.
THERE IS NO MONEY PEOPLE!!! What part of that do you NOT understand???
Sorry, 738, but doing that would be adopting a hundred million dollar mistake of a WWTP that we can't even use. Leave the City mistakes to their parents, the Dems that bought the crap. It's a good day to teach city voters just who to vote for next time on their paper ballots.
Steve, Thanks for an informative comment, as well as the pics.
It's clear the administration would prefer to 'bury the problem. And cheap, temporary fixes leave more cash for paint and signage for bike lanes.
And then all the whiners will be complaining about the torn up road, one lane traffic, and travel delays when they tear up the roadways to fix the infrastructure beneath the man holes. City just can't win. They will be criticized for the quick fix, and they will be criticized for the permanent fix.
Post a Comment