BWSC
Citizen complaint of the day: What does Boston Water and Sewer have against concrete?
By adamg - 2/1/12 - 1:35 pm
UPDATE: See the comments for why this is all really the DPW's fault, well, except for the part about doing a half-assed job at leveling off the asphalt to begin with.
Of course, you have to doff your hat to the dedicated men and women of the Boston Water and Sewer Commission, who tirelessly toil in the muck and mire 24 hours a day to keep our water and sewage flowing. But why can't they ever put sidewalks back the way they found them? We had a misshapen lump of asphalt instead of a concrete square in front of our house for several years - and when it was finally replaced, it was thanks to the DPW, which was overhauling all the sidewalks on the street.
The photo above comes from W. 5th Street in South Boston, where a resident complains and pleads:
The city dug up this fire hydrant a few months ago and did a terrible job repatching the surrounding sidewalk. I've seen too many women with strollers resort to walking in the road to avoid the hole. Please patch so surface is at least level
Over on Mansfield Street in Allston, another resident posts another photo of a lumpy blob of asphalt where a piece of concrete should be.
Our decaying infrastructure: Burst water main shuts Mass. Ave. near BMC
By adamg - 10/9/11 - 8:26 amHappened around 3 a.m. between Washington and Harrison, Brian D'Amico reports.
Noah didn't live in Jamaica Plain
By adamg - 10/6/11 - 5:37 pmIt's a major mess at Sedgwick and South streets in JP, where a water main burst, flooding the streets and bringing in a flotilla of tow trucks to move cars out of the way.
Another water-main break in Oak Square snarls rush-hour traffic
By adamg - 2/7/11 - 7:56 amAnd that includes buses and ambulances, Nathan Spencer reports. He adds this is the second one in two years there.
Exclusive photo of flooding - in Downtown Crossing
By adamg - 12/28/10 - 9:40 amYep, another water main went kablooie this morning, right at Washington and Winter streets, Channel 4 reports.
They could call it New Faithful
By adamg - 12/23/10 - 7:42 pmChannel 25 reports on a geyser at Norfolk Avenue and Hampden Street in Roxbury, thanks to a water-main break.
They don't love that dirty water
By adamg - 12/22/10 - 2:27 pmThe federal government wants to join a local environmental group's lawsuit against Boston for allegedly failing to keep crap out of rivers feeding into Boston Harbor.
In a motion filed in US District Court in Boston yesterday, the EPA said it agrees with the Conservation Law Foundation's suit that the Boston Water and Sewer Commission has failed to do enough to keep bacteria, oil and dissolved metals and chemicals out of Boston Harbor. The gunk comes from 201 "outfall" pipes that collect road runoff from nearly 20,000 catch basins - and from Brookline - and pours into the Mystic and Charles Rivers, from which they flow into the harbor.
H. Curtis Spalding, regional director of the federal EPA, said in a statement that the suit will help get the BWSC to fulfill its obligation to keep the Harbor clean after all the money spent to keep raw and partially treated sewage out of it.
Water main breaks, road sinks, power goes out in South End
By adamg - 12/9/10 - 6:44 amTim Johnson tweets to beware of the area around W. Springfield and Shawmut this morning.
At least one South End resident alerts us that a helicopter has been buzzing the area since 5:30 and that he wishes it would go away already.
It's wet all over, but even more so in Oak Square
By adamg - 8/25/10 - 9:14 amWhere a 12-inch water main under Washington Street up and burst itself this morning, creating a sinkhole and disrupting the commute for Oak Square commuters as the city shut the street and diverted MBTA buses - but without telling any of the repair crews what to tell soggy bus riders where their buses went. The Globe reports the official BWSC response: "It's just one of those sinkholes." La di da.
Water-main break makes a mess of traffic around Ruggles
By adamg - 7/1/10 - 7:41 amA burst main at Tremont and Ruggles streets this morning meant gushing water and diverted traffic on those streets and Melnea Cass Boulevard.
