Line leak compromises road

Pine Haven's Elm Street has been compromised by a sewer leak that has been seeping for quite awhile according to Mayor Karla Brandenburg.

"As much erosion as that has done, my guess is that it has been [flowing] for a long time," she said. This sewer line is approximately ten feet deep.

After being informed of the sink hole in the road, the site was dug up, only to find "a mess", as later described by Brandenburg, who, along with Councilmen John Henle and Don Lancaster, has looked over the situation. Lancaster agreed with the mayor's summary, saying, "It's basically soup."

Two years ago, a contractor fixed a leak in a water line at this site; in doing so, though, according to the mayor, "They broke the sewer line. Then, when they went down to fix the sewer line, they had the parts to fix one sewer line and found out there are two."

When the mayor and Public Works Director Sunny Schell examined the state of affairs, they found the fittings to be sound, but "[the pipe] had just pulled apart, it was a connection failure; the fitting was still there – perfect shape".

The leak had over time turned the road substrate into bog and, without the solid foundation, the street failed in that specific area (there are no measurements of the damage at this time).

After mending the line, the town restructured the road as much as possible for a temporarily fix.

"We got it passable, but that's about it," said Brandenburg. "A whole new road is going to have to basically be built with compaction and everything."

She has advised Schell to acquire a number of quotes to begin the process of rebuilding the street as soon as possible.

According to Brandenburg, there is one resident living on the end of Elm Street who is affected by this situation.

.

.