One Big Hole
By Jim Hunt for the News and Journal
The City of Clarksburg recently experienced a huge sinkhole that engulfed both lanes of
Main Street, causing traffic detours and frustrating those drivers who had to take
alternate routes to do their business in the city’s downtown. Each year, when the cold
winter weather subsides, underground infrastructure is especially vulnerable to water
and sewer pipes breaks.
Luckily, the city found the sinkhole before it fell in and possibly swallowing a car or injuring someone who unexpectedly stumbled into the abyss. One challenge, with miles of underground pipes in a city, is that it is hard to predict where the next break will happen. It becomes a game of whack-a-mole and when you think you are winning, another huge line will break and starts the digging, once again.
During my 27 years as a City Councilman and Mayor, I grew to respect the work of the
crews that responded to these emergencies. The work is cold and dangerous and
unpredictable. Many people do not realize that running along the right-a-ways of the
water and sewer lines are high pressure natural gas lines, phone lines, electric cables
and increasing amounts of fiber optic cables. One small mistake can trigger a massive
explosion or electrocute a worker. Another complicating factor is that the mapping of
these various pipes and cables is often sketchy and oftentimes, so old that they are not
even on the maps.
A few years ago, a sewer line broke in front of my house and the city began digging to
find the source of the break. I would walk over and check on the progress and was
shocked when I peered over the edge of the hole. A workman was covered in mud,
sixteen feet below the street level, digging with a shovel. Over his head was a huge
bucket on the earth mover, gently digging around the pipe. It was bitter cold, and they
were having trouble sorting out the problem and how much of the pipe they needed to
replace. The conditions could not have been worse and when I mentioned this to the
foreman, he said, “We do this all the time!”
There are lots of dangerous jobs in cities and the risk of injury and death in the police
and fire departments are well documented. I would make the case to include our public
works employees in that list. When we flush our toilets or have fresh water, it is because
of many unsung heroes, who risk their lives for our quality of life.
A post on Facebook showed the lack of compassion for these workers during the repair of the Clarksburg sinkhole. A person wrote that a picture that the city had posted with employees standing next to the hole, said, “It looks like the State Road, one man working and five others
standing around!” I would invite the writer to spend one cold evening working beside the
city workers or the State Road workers and I bet they would never denigrate these
workers again.
This complex work, in often horrid conditions, would defeat the best among us, but
these brave workers kiss their spouses and children and report to work. I asked one of
our workers if they ever just wanted to ignore the phone call in the middle of the night
and he said, “I just wouldn’t feel right, knowing that my work buddies were there, and I
wasn’t with them.” I think that says it all.