Thursday, July 26, 2012

Yet Another Sinkhole

There is obviously a very big underlying problem here, one that might require the assistance of better engineers (no offense to the folks who are working on this) than we currently have on site:
Another sinkhole has formed in the same area of Washington Avenue where two already have opened this year, and the original hole has expanded significantly in recent days, the city engineer says.

Ralph Swenson said “three dump truck loads” of earth have disappeared at the original sinkhole in the past five days, causing it to expand and create another hole 10 feet away.

The expansion of the first sinkhole has shifted earth, which caused a stormwater pipe to become “undermined” and led to blacktop collapse on the road, Swenson said.
Strong thunderstorms predicted for today -- so strong, in fact, that Cuomo's office issued a warning yesterday:
Gov. Andrew Cuomo is urging New Yorkers to be prepared for severe thunderstorms.

Thursday’s storms are predicted to bring heavy rain, high winds and hail that may cause widespread power outages. Forecasters say an isolated tornado is also possible.

The areas most likely to be impacted are Connecticut down through New York City to points north and west. There’s also a chance for widespread thunderstorms in New Jersey that could pack damaging winds and heavy rainfall.
These sink holes are about to get worse, given the volume of water that will be dumped on us today. Not sure what needs to be done to stabilize this situation, but it might make sense to reach out to the Army Corps of Engineers on this one. It keeps getting worse, and nothing they've done thus far has had any effect.

Let's hope these sinkholes stay contained to surface streets and don't spread to any nearby homes.

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