Sinkhole Swallows Up Big Truck

[thesidekickcat]

I hope the workers get over their injuries soon.

I hope we don't have anymore sinkholes, if one can be big enough to take in a city truck with no warning, then our little Subaru Justy wouldn't have a chance but also it isn't as heavy. Sure glad the broken gas line didn't explode with impact of crash.

Had a broken water main in a busy street downtown last week (or was it week before?), now this.

Katu tv story Sinkhole swallows truck

Pat

God bless everyone

[JDoors]

We don't get major sinkholes here -- Man! That would make me SO nevous to drive during or after a lot of rain.

With a broken gas line those guys should consider themselves lucky. I remember a broken line here caught fire. The roaring flames were ... well, stunning to see.

[TheTerrorist_75]

We get some sinkholes occasionally here from old water mains deteriorating. The biggest problem is potholes from the constant thawing and freezing in the long winters. Some of them could swallow a Justy and it would never be seen again.

[snyper]

We get potholes too in Ireland but thats because the council are too useless to fix them after 50 years of decay!

[thesidekickcat]

Some of our pipes in this town are over a hundred years old. I'm sure our area's are close to that too, in fact we still have horse rings in the parking strip curbs to tie up the horses way back when.

I heard a city engineer on the news tonight saying it could happen anywhere in town. Said they send a camera probe through all the sewer pipes every five to ten years which does an adequate job to check for trouble. Hmmm... adequate is an interesting word...depending on how they define it.

Yes we have the freezing and thawing weather problem too!

Had a tiny sink hole start in our intersection a year or two back, hubby called the city right away when he noticed it. The city public works dept put up warning signs around it, which some dumb people moved to side of street and drove right over it in spite of this being a wide enough street to go around stuff. After wasting some time, waiting to see if it would worsen?, they finally they fixed it. In the meantime I was just thankful it was on the far side of the street from our place.

As for normal potholes, yeah our town has plenty of them...and a recent audit found out the city workers have been applying poor quality asphalt on all street paving and repair jobs for many years wasting precious tax dollars!!! Do I think that has changed any...sure folks...yeah right!!! Report probably in 'file thirteen' by now.

Pat

God bless everyone

[bozodog]

Sinkholes caused by bad water lines are the result of our corrupt and inefficent governments.

camera probe through all the sewer pipes every five to ten years which does an adequate job to check for trouble. Hmmm...

Since a leak can cause one as fast as the water runs out, how do they justify "five to ten years"?

Now Florida and a few other states are suffering a much more serious problem with natural sinkholes. Good explaination here And some great pics here.

No matter the reason, it all seems to point at society. Improper maintanence or overuse/abuse of our ground water.

Edited December 28, 2006 by bozodog

[garmanma]

Being in the maintenence trade for over 35 years I can tell you nobody believes in preventive maintenence. They can use all the buzzwords,procedures, and blow all the smoke they want. Bottom line is it cost money and doesn't add money to the bottom line. If it is'nt in the budget too bad. I've literally welded bearings in place while the machinery was still running because they wouldn't shut it down. The last place I did work for was the only place that understood the whole preventitive/crisis maintenence deal. I was sorry to leave when it was time to retire

Mark

[JDoors]

... nobody believes in preventive maintenence. ...

One of my biggest dissappointments was working for companys that talked the talk but didn't walk the walk. "Preventitive Maintenance" programs that were nothing more than "patch 'em up and let 'er rip" stop-gap repairs. All the talk about the latest productivity crazes, classes, paperwork, then ignoring the results (while keeping the requirement for the paperwork -- thus DE-creasing productivity).

Now I see it everywhere, and unfortunately I DO remember the lessons I learned, I DO know how those lessons can be put to use, but I am not in a position to implement them.

Example from previous job: Maintenance essentially spent the workday fixing things that were broken, working on a project in the shop, or just killing time. Bored, I started walking around the plant checking for things that looked like they needed attention and writing up work orders for those I couldn't fix then and there.

I eventually had a routine, a path through the plant, item after item I'd check. All too often I'd find something that required IMMEDIATE attention, which brought attention to how I found the problem in the first place.

A supervisor asked me about my routine and I innocently explained what I had been doing. He said to write down what I had been doing. He then took that routine and made it mandatory -- for everyone.

Oh boy! The looks I got from the other mechanics! "Work! What's WRONG with you!"

It's something that should've been done all along! Crazy.