A married couple in Queens had an unpleasant experience this past August and needed Queens sewer line service. The Flushing homeowners received a DEP (Department of Environmental Protection) violation because of a sink hole in front of their home at 150-58 Bayside Avenue.The violation was issued after the DEP had performed a sewer dye test.
It turns out that their home’s sewer line had become dislodged and broken. The leaking sewage slowly saturated the soil under the road until there was nothing firm enough to hold up the pavement and it sank. It was definitely time for an emergency Queens sewer line service call!
This is not the first time Bayside Avenue has experienced that ‘sinking’ feeling. According to this article in The Courier, the summer of 2015 was also a busy one for the Department of Environmental Protection, which handles sink holes in NYC. It seems Bayside Avenue has had more than its share of those sink holes. This video features some of the residents discussing their concerns about their ‘sinking’ street.
Residents were right to fear that a car might fall into a sink hole. As these sink hole photos from China show, a hole large enough to swallow even good-sized trucks is quite possible. A well drilling project in Florida precipitated a ‘swarm’ of sink holes that swallowed several 60 foot tall pine trees!
It was important to respond quickly to this sink hole and solve the sewer issues, along with repairing the damage. August 24th and 25th saw a busy couple of days in front of the home . In order to prevent a similar problem in the future, Balkan installed a new, extra-heavy duty cast iron sewer line.
We ran that pipe from the curb line out to where it connected with the city sewer line in the middle of the street. It was important that we kept traffic flowing safely around the repair site. Fortunately, our experienced crews are experts at all aspects of such a repair – including traffic control!
After the pipe replacement, it was time to move on to the sink hole. We filled it in with clean, dry backfill material, performed certified compaction testing, and repaved the street over it. No more worries about someone losing a car in front of this home!
Contact Joseph L. Balkan, Inc. if you suspect a possible sewer leak and need Queens sewer line service. As sewer and water main specialists, we are definitely not afraid of a dirty job!
