Manhole exposed in Corona

 

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Seen on Alstyne Ave. and 103rd St.. Truly a new low for the "World's Borough", but its just another day of negligence by the Department Of Transportation.

Talk about an open street. Nothing can get more open than this

Defective cables cause frightening explosions

From CBS 2:

A series of manhole explosions rocked a Queens neighborhood Monday, damaging several cars parked cars and leaving dozens without power.

Just before 11 p.m., an electrical fire shot blue flames out of a manhole on Queens Boulevard between 67th and 68th avenues in Forest Hills.

Some people who live nearby captured one of the blasts on video. In a matter of minutes, two more explosions sent smoke billowing into the air.

Con Edison officials told CBS2 the blasts were caused by defective cables underground.

“Then all of a sudden I saw huge pieces, I couldn’t tell if they were — if they were metal or concrete, but I saw three huge pieces fly,” said Ben Benyamin.

That airborne debris landed on parked cars, cracking windshields and crushing hoods. It took the FDNY nearly two hours to extinguish the raging flames underground.

Major construction coming to Main Street

From DNA Info:

The city is launching a nearly $8 million project to widen bustling Main Street, one of the busiest pedestrian corridors in the five boroughs, officials said.

The roadway will also be resurfaced and rebuilt, and manholes, fire hydrants, sewers and water mains will be replaced — the first overhaul in two decades, according to officials.

During the construction project — which begins Monday, July 25, and will last approximately a year — the community will experience inconveniences and changes, Councilman Peter Koo warned.

But the major revamp will have more long-term benefits to everyone, including adding as much as 8 feet of space on some sidewalks, he said.

Bayside watermain project underway

From the Times Ledger:

Bayside is undergoing a major underground transformation and with it some headaches for its neighbors above ground.

A massive water main replacement project is underway in the northeast Queens neighborhood to install 7,000-foot trunk water mains with a 48-inch diameter, 13,000-feet distribution mains and 657 sewer pipes.

The $20 million project is being done by the Department of Environmental Protection, along with the Department of Design and Construction and the Department of Transportation, will last two years.

While construction occurs, dust, noise and heavy equipment will be an inevitable part of the landscape.

City workers began the project around the intersection between Luke Place and 216th Street, and it will travel north until it reaches the corner of 39th Avenue and 216th Street. Besides trunk and distribution water mains and sewer pipes installation, the project includes tree pruning and roadway reconstruction.

“The new water mains will improve pressure and the quality of water,” said a spokesman for DEP, “while also providing a critical redundancy to the distribution system that will help minimize disruptions during future maintenance work.”

According to the DEP, workers will also install 38 fire hydrants and 26 manholes.

Scrap metal thieves to face steep fines

From the NY Post:

The City Council is declaring war on people who steal recyclables and manhole covers.

Those who heist paper, large appliances and big metal items put out on the sidewalk for Sanitation trucks would be subject to $5,000 fines under a bill to be considered at a City Hall hearing today.

Those who rip off manhole covers — which can be sold for scrap metal — would be subject to $3,000 fines on top of the punishment they’d get under state criminal laws, under another bill.

The proposals follow exclusive reports in The Post about thefts of manhole covers, used appliances and other recyclable materials.

As prices for recyclables rebound from their recession lows, more and more thieves are lifting items left out for Sanitation trucks to pick up.

Legitimate recycling businesses and the city are losing millions to the trash thieves.

How about increasing penalties for businesses that buy them?

Junkie stole the manhole covers

From NBC New York:

Police have arrested a man suspected of stealing more than a dozen manhole covers across the city in a spree that stumped utility officials for weeks.

Sources tell NBC 4 New York that the 46-year-old suspect, Andrew Modica, has admitted to stealing at least 18 of the covers across Brooklyn and Queens.

Modica told police that he is a crack and heroin addict and has been stealing the covers to sell for scrap metal and support his addiction. He told police he may have stolen more than 18 but could not remember because of his drug use, sources said.

Modica said he was paid about 15 cents per pound at two scrap yards, or about $30 per cover.

Witnesses told police that he would pull up to a manhole in a truck, surround it with cones, hook the cover and use a hydraulic car back to raise it into the pickup truck bed. He would leave either the cones or a construction barrel over the hole when he was done, police said.

Metal thieves take anything not nailed down

From NY1:

The hunt is on for iron tree guards that have gone missing from Manhattan's Restaurant Row.

The Times Square Alliance says more than 20 iron guards on 46th Street between Eighth and Ninth Avenues disappeared last weekend.

Sources say there is a chance the guards were removed to accommodate work on the block, but they are not yet ruling out theft.

The alliance wonders whether the missing guards are connected to a pattern of stolen manhole covers.

From COMET:

At our last meeting we discussed the problem of missing fire hydrant caps that are being stolen by metal scrappers. I happened to see a fire engine outside of Frank's deli today and stopped to ask how important it was that the hydrants have caps. The fireman told me that fire hydrant caps are necessary to keep the "threads" on the hydrant from rusting. If there is a fire and there are rusted threads they will have a problem attaching the hose when there's a fire and every minute counts. A delay in response could result in the loss of life or property! Here's what he said:

Call 311 and have them report it to the Department of Environmental Protection. Be sure to have the address nearest to the hydrant. If they hydrant isn't near an address, provide the street and cross streets.

He said some fire houses have a supply of hydrant caps. You could stop by with the address to see if they might be able to replace it.

Girl falls down Kissena Park manhole

From A Walk in the Park:

A teenage girl was rescued by NYFD firefighters after falling through an open storm drain inside a Queens park on Friday night, A Walk In The Park has learned.

Amber Thom, 16, a student at Arch Bishop Malloy High School was walking with five friends in a wooded area inside Kissena Park near Underhill Avenue and 168th Street in Auburndale about 10:30 p.m. when she fell through an open storm drain, according to NYFD officials.

The girl was walking on a log when she slipped and fell approximately 15 feet straight down through an open man hole cover.

Friends climbed down the drain to help her but were unable to move her. Friends called 911 at 10:35pm.

Engine 299 arrived first at the scene within five minutes. Within 20 minutes Thom was lifted out of the hole by firefighters. By 11:21pm Thorn and two friends had been removed from the sewer drain. The teen was taken to Long Island Jewish hospital where she was treated for a broken leg.

The manhole cover was found beside the opening. According to neighbors teenage kids often gather in the remote area of the park and sometimes explore the underground storm drains.

Screenshot from Eyewitness News.

"Comrie comes here only when he needs the vote"

Mocker looks into a hole

UPDATE 9/8/11: Hole is covered.

Watch for flying manhole covers

From the NY Times:

On Tuesday, manhole fires in Brooklyn, Queens and the Bronx prompted evacuations of nearby homes.

All these incidents — only one of which involved an injury, minor — are part of an annual cycle as predictable as crocuses in March and mosquitoes in June: the surge in manhole fires as salty slush seeps down into the city’s maze of subterranean utility closets. There have been at least 19 such fires and explosions since New Year’s Day, according to Consolidated Edison and fire officials.

Salt laid down on wintry streets corrodes cables and makes them more susceptible to catching fire, said a Con Edison spokesman, Chris Olert. A smoldering cable can also release noxious gasses that can build to such intense pressure that the manhole cover pops off. Con Edison has redesigned many of its manhole covers to increase ventilation and to decrease the chance of such a frightening occurrence.

The fires happen more often in Manhattan and other areas where electrical wiring runs underground. In Staten Island and parts of Queens, many of the wires run aboveground, making them impervious to manhole fires but more vulnerable to high winds and storms.

Anyone who sustains an injury or has property damaged in a manhole fire can file a claim with Con Edison.