Author Topic: Road Cave-in on Anderson St  (Read 69511 times)

Offline BLeafe

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Road Cave-in on Anderson St
« on: August 20, 2009, 01:14:43 PM »
I'm not sure exactly what happened there yesterday between Union and Main Streets, but there was some sort of road cave-in. I could see the bright lights and hear an occasional rumble as repair work went on through the night.

As you can see in the third picture below, it's a pretty large opening that appears to be shored up now so the problem can be fixed.

The road's still closed and work continues. If anyone knows exactly what happened, please post.

Below:

1. View to the west

2. View to the east

3. City officials at the scene



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« Last Edit: August 31, 2009, 01:30:28 AM by BLeafe »


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Offline BLeafe

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Re: Road Cave-in on Anderson St
« Reply #1 on: August 20, 2009, 02:19:15 PM »
The original story I got was that a sewer pipe broke, causing the cave-in...........but then two other people said something different (water pipe, sink hole).

I just went back there and smelled the correct answer, thanks to the sewer truck's activities in the first photo.

On a personal note, the other one - straight down (close enough for you?) - is the 2,500th photo taken with my cell. What a festive shot. ::)



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Offline BLeafe

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Re: Road Cave-in on Anderson St
« Reply #2 on: August 20, 2009, 11:00:06 PM »
I'll go to any lengths to get the story (as long as it's within a block of my apartment).

I could see big replacement pipes and bright lights from my living room window, so I took a walk over there to see if the cell would perform well at night (it usually doesn't). The lights did the trick.

I snapped away from both sides of the street. The sewer-sucker truck was now in the middle of Main and Anderson and too dark to shoot. I had thought there was only one opening in the street, but I think there are at least 3.

I asked a worker how big the replacement pipes are. "60 inches - same as the busted one". I then asked how old the busted one was. "It was made of brick - GOTTA be at least a hundred years old...........same as me".

He looked about 25. I asked him, "How do you think that makes ME feel?"

He laughed.

And, except for the third picture, the cell passed the test.



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Offline BLeafe

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Re: Road Cave-in on Anderson St
« Reply #3 on: August 21, 2009, 05:39:50 PM »
Today, I spoke with a cop at the scene who said the replacement pipe would be about 75' long. I thought maybe it would run the length of Anderson between Union and Main.

He said no replacement was in the ground yet. I told him I saw replacement pipes last night that aren't there now, so they must have been installed.

"No - those are now at Johnson Park".

I guess there's a staging area over there now.

He took me over to one of the street openings. If you look at the below picture closely, you can see the busted brick pipe and some of its unpleasant contents.

I asked when he thought the work would be completed. He said they weren't going to be working over the weekend, so it might be next Wednesday or Thursday.

They've just used four large metal tubes to connect two massive rectangular metal plates. The new piece was lifted, swung around, and lowered into one of the street openings...........I'm guessing to brace the walls.

Those are some historic bricks down there, but I doubt you'd want one in your home.



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« Last Edit: August 21, 2009, 06:10:07 PM by BLeafe »
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Offline Editor

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Re: Road Cave-in on Anderson St
« Reply #4 on: August 21, 2009, 10:35:53 PM »
It's hard for me to believe that brick lasted as long as it did.  How do you lay bricks like that?  That must have been an arduous, pain staking process.  I'm sure it's all over the city.  

Fascinating.  Really.
« Last Edit: August 22, 2009, 07:00:01 PM by Editor »

Offline BLeafe

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Re: Road Cave-in on Anderson St
« Reply #5 on: August 22, 2009, 02:02:49 PM »
I wonder how old that brick pipe REALLY is. Anyone got a clue?

I guess the OT situation loosened up - they're working today (Saturday).



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Offline Homer Jones

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Re: Road Cave-in on Anderson St
« Reply #6 on: August 22, 2009, 04:11:32 PM »
Looking at the photos, that type of brick arch construction dates back to the late 1800's.

Offline BLeafe

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Re: Road Cave-in on Anderson St
« Reply #7 on: August 23, 2009, 10:31:52 PM »
Well, that makes this pipe significantly older than 100 years.

Although the following isn't about Hackensack, it shows the existence of local 60" brick sewer pipes in the early 1850s.

from: http://www.usgennet.org/usa/nj/state/EssexNewarkSewer.htm

Work began on the Newark’s first sewer in 1852 and was completed in 1854. Built under Broad Street, the sewer ran east under Park Place and Rector Street before emptying into the Passaic River. This circular brick conduit, which still serves the city today, is five feet in diameter, 1305 feet long and 23 feet below ground.


The only thing I found relating to Hackensack (below) was from 1908.
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Offline BLeafe

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Re: Road Cave-in on Anderson St
« Reply #8 on: August 24, 2009, 11:10:35 PM »
The majority of today was spent pile-driving huge steel beams into the walls of a street opening.

In the first picture (taken from my apartment), you can see the crane lifting up a beam. When a beam was upright in the hole, the green apparatus at  the end of the crane's line attached to the beam and jack-hammered the beam into the ground (second picture). You can see a small dirt cloud.

This was extremely loud. I hope it doesn't go on all night. I know it's necessary, but so is sleep.
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Offline BLeafe

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Re: Road Cave-in on Anderson St
« Reply #9 on: August 26, 2009, 02:22:26 PM »
I was incorrect about the "steel beams". They may have looked like beams from a distance, but as you can see in the first two photos below, they're rather thin and interlocking - they remind me a bit of highway sound barriers. You can see some of the new concrete pipe in-ground at the top of the second photo.

The third photo shows more new 60" pipe sections awaiting installation.

I'm still trying to get more shots of the old brick pipe, but I keep showing up at the wrong time. Yesterday, it was too flooded to see in the section they were working in and today that section was already replaced.



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« Last Edit: August 26, 2009, 02:26:27 PM by BLeafe »
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Offline Homer Jones

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Re: Road Cave-in on Anderson St
« Reply #10 on: August 26, 2009, 03:06:41 PM »
The "steel beams" are called sheet piles.

Offline BLeafe

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Re: Road Cave-in on Anderson St
« Reply #11 on: August 26, 2009, 03:45:00 PM »
........sheet piles.

Thanks for the good info, Homer, but did you also just hand me a straight line setup regarding pipe content?  ;)




(must resist..................)



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Offline Homer Jones

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Re: Road Cave-in on Anderson St
« Reply #12 on: August 26, 2009, 04:34:51 PM »
Let me sit on that for a while. I have some pressing business to get out of the way.

Offline BLeafe

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Re: Road Cave-in on Anderson St
« Reply #13 on: August 26, 2009, 06:47:58 PM »
Even if you passed a brick, I've got you beat...........sorta.


The workers had told me to come back late afternoon, so I went over there about 5:15. Since they're all very busy, you can only talk to whoever's nearby.

This turned out to be a friendly gentleman for whom English is a bit difficult. After some fruitless back-and-forth about whether the brick pipe was still in the ground and visible, he motioned me to wait a minute.

He walked behind a large apparatus - I thought he was getting the foreman - and came back with a couple of bricks! I wasn't sure I wanted to accept them right away, so I smiled and motioned for him to put them down on the grass.

Then I found someone in charge talking to a cop. He let me interrupt and told me they were having lots of problems, so he couldn't pinpoint a time that would be good to come back. I kind of figured it would be hit-or-miss and was resigned to having the above picture of the brick pipe from 5 days ago being my only one.

The cop, BTW, said he was told by the DPW that the pipes were 120 years old, which ties in nicely with Homer's "late 1800s" statement above. So, absent any better information, I think we can safely say that this 60" brick pipe was probably installed under Anderson St in the late 1880s.

Now - what to do about the "gift" bricks..................

Against my better judgment, I gingerly picked them up with 3 fingertips and brought them across the Second Reformed Church's parking lot to the back of my building across the street. There, I found two Capri Sun cardboard boxes that were larger than a brick and transported them upstairs in the boxes.

I photographed them first as they were, blasted them with hot water, drowned them in Lysol, and shot them again.

They're now up to $346.00 on eBay.  ;)



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« Last Edit: August 26, 2009, 06:50:30 PM by BLeafe »
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Offline Homer Jones

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Re: Road Cave-in on Anderson St
« Reply #14 on: August 26, 2009, 07:09:19 PM »
Too bad that you washed the bricks. You were lucky enough to have held two original WHITE MANNA sliders.

[Topic continues here]
« Last Edit: August 27, 2009, 11:33:11 AM by Editor »

 

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