The morning star Restaurant on W 57 St. in Manhattan had been experiencing sewer back-ups for several years, their plumber had been clearing the sewer line more frequently as of recently. The plumber made a standard service call to the restaurant within 2 weeks of his previous visit, unfortunately the restaurant had experienced the inevitable and the plumber could no longer clear the pipe due to a break. The owner was aware that the pipe had been cracked for a while however, the sewage was still able to reach the city sewer. At this point the sewer line had completely failed and the sewage was now backing up in building.
Harris Water Main and Sewer Contractors was hired to replace the sewer line from the building to the street which started with obtaining all required DEP (Department of Environmental Protection) and DOT (Department of Transportation) permits. Due to the volume of weekday traffic on w 57 St the NYC DOT issued restricted hours to work on weekends only. What was projected to be a one week job was now going to take 3-4 weeks due to the restricted hours. Harris now had to plan accordingly using all traffic control devises, roadway plates and flagman to assist the flow of traffic and a safe work environment.
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On the first day of excavation Harris opened the sidewalk; dug down 8’ where the sewer crew removed the old 6” clay pipe and installed new 8” cast iron piping as per DEP requirements (NYC is the only borough that requires 8” pipe as the minimum size). The crew was able to remove and install the new 8” pipe in time for DEP inspection which was scheduled for Sunday afternoon. The sidewalk was now secured with metal plates in preparation for the following week’s excavation of the roadway.
The jobsite foreman arrived on the site at 8 AM on weekend two when he noticed that the sewage was not draining properly near the foundation wall, he decided to dig-up the concrete on the inside of the building where he found the existing house trap to be completely rotted out. Not only had the water been backing up due to the broken pipe in the roadway but it also had been restricted due to the rotted sections of the house sewer trap.
Utilities
Harris continued with the roadway excavation where they encountered large rock which took extra time to reach the existing sewer line, the first section of pipe installation was pushed back by one weekend as it took two days just to excavate and remove the rock. The crew was making good progress installing the pipe over weekend three until they encountered large utilities in the roadway which required all hand digging. Up to this point of the project the installation a backhoe was used to dig down and remove all of the debris. The final roadway hole and piping installation was going to take time and precision, it required all hand digging and extra attention to detail due to the utilities they had encountered.
The installation crew was now preparing for the fourth and final weekend of installing 65’ of the new 8” cast iron piping. The piping was completed on Saturday which left DEP inspection of the piping and the roadway compaction test for Sunday, before the sidewalk and roadway could be permanently restored.
Harris Water Main and Sewer Contractors was able to complete the installation, inspection and special highway compaction over the fourth weekend, leaving a happy and relieved property owner in NYC. The buildings sewer line from the new trap to the city connection in the roadway was now flowing smooth and will continue to do so for a lifetime.
