A single family homeowner was made aware of a large problem with his sewer line after DEP performed a camera inspection late Thursday evening. The homeowner had noticed a large hole forming in the roadway in-front of his house, 188 St in Queens is a heavily traveled roadway, and he nothing of it. DEP was quick to issue a “Cease & Desist” notice which stated he had to resolve the issue in a time sensitive manor.
The roadway sinkhole |
DEP cease and desist notice |
The homeowner was surprised as he had not experienced any sewer line backups and questioned the DEP notice. He contacted a local water main & sewer contractor who had been working on several of his neighbor’s sewer lines over the previous year. The contractor was quick to explain that the raw sewage was actually seeping into the surrounding soil, which was causing the undermining condition of the roadway. The city sewer on 188 St. in Queens was twenty feet deep and almost double the depth of the average sewer in queens, for this reason the contractor obtained a spur map. The spur map was obtained from DEP, and displayed the exact location, as well as the type of connection. In this case the owner had a “riser connection” which displayed that the owners connection to the riser was only 10’ deep.
Spur map showing sewer connection |
After digging ten feet deep in the roadway, they became aware that there were two issues with the existing sewer line. The pipe had collapsed in two separate areas, one was at the riser connection which had to be re-connected.
New cast iron pipe installed |
Roadway plates before final restoration |
The repair work was completed by 3pm the same day which allowed for a DEP inspection before the roadway hole was back-filled with clean soil. At this point the hole was left with two steal roadway plates before the hole could be permanently restored the next day.
718-416-6357
