Chesterton Tribune

 

 

Telecom crew bores thru sewer main at 23rd Porter

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By KEVIN NEVERS

That ruckus on Saturday at 23rd Street and West Porter Ave. was the result of a breach in an eight-inch sanitary force main, caused when a telecom company boring fiber-optic conduit hit the main after failing to check the pipe’s depth.

The breach occurred around mid-afternoon, Chesterton Town Engineer Mark O’Dell told the Chesterton Tribune today.

O’Dell said that the company is installing fiber-optic conduit from the new “Christmas tree” telecom tower at Bethlehem Lutheran Church on 1100N down the west side of 23rd Street. Although the Chesterton Utility did provide a locate for the company, the company’s field crew neglected to dig a pothole to ascertain the pipe’s depth, instead boring right through it, O’Dell said.

The force main in question serves pretty much everything west of 23rd Street: Abercrombie Woods, Westwood Manor, Crocker, Golfview Estates, and Porter Cove.

It took a Utility crew around five hours to temporarily patch the breach, O’Dell said, with assistance from the Street Department and the Porter Public Works Department. O’Dell in particular expressed his gratitude to Porter Public Works Director Brenda Brueckheimer for tasking two of her workers to the scene as backup for the duration of the fix. “We’re highly appreciative of that,” he said.

O’Dell added that Utility Superintendent Dave Ryan is currently working on invoicing the telecom company, seeking compensation for the man-hours and materials spent on the emergency repair.

 

 

Posted 2/76/2017

 

 
 
 
 

 

 

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