HUDseen: Is Hudson's Ageing Infrastructure At A Critical Stage?

Preparation on Green Street for
National Grid gas line replacement

The New York Times recently published an article about how the water infrastructure in almost every municipality in America is ill equipped to handle the increased amount and intensity of rains that a planet altered by global warming is serving up for us. In short, our pipes and other water infrastructure simply weren't designed to handle the increased flow of water they are now having to move along, and things are only going to continue to intensify.

Global warming is stressing water systems all over the country and world, and it just might be happening here in Hudson, too. Add lots of enormous and heavy trucks to the streets of a small city and you just might have the perfect storm of infrastructure failure and a never-ending menu of expensive repair projects to keep things from completely falling apart. A really costly, perpetual game of infrastructure whack-a-mole, if you will, with orange safety cones everywhere.

A few weeks ago, a sinkhole appeared in front of 610 State Street, at the edge of major excavation for water pipe work that DPW performed late last year. DPW is aware of this new hole, though they have yet to mark the area for future work. At some point soon, DPW will have to dig up another portion of the 600 block of State Street, which was newly paved 20 months ago by A. Colarusso & Sons. At a council meeting last year, DPW Superintendent Robert Perry told everyone that the leak in front of 610 State, which had bedeviled DPW and required hiring a contractor to locate the leak, had been repaired. This appears not to be the case.

A sinkhole in the 300 block of Long Alley appeared a few weeks ago. Pavement is marked and cut, ready to be excavated. Notice that DPW patched the hole for the time being, but the hole still found a way to resurface!

This morning, I notified DPW about a sinkhole in front of 417 Columbia, where a DPW asphalt patch job (from when?) is located. Within two hours, the street was marked, ready to be sawed into and excavated. This is, of course, along our truck route. Last year or the year before, DPW did two huge excavations to get at pipes below Columbia further west in that block.

For the past few days, DPW has been working on 2 storm drains and failed asphalt issues in the 500 block of Columbia Street, along the municipal parking lot. Lots of men, including two directing cars and trucks, lots of machinery, lots of material, lots of time. No parking is allowed on the entire block night and day, likely well into next week. There is a lot more work to be done there.

Both lanes of that entire block of pavement are a mess and should be completely replaced. This is especially true near 6th Street, by the church, where you can see how the truck traffic has created ruts in the westbound traffic lane. Ruts in an asphalt street, thanks to all the trucks! Where all tires travel is as much as two inches below the rest of the asphalt, and the curb along the church is a crumbling, heaving, embarrassing mess.

DPW, just getting started on the
500 block of Columbia Street.

A huge painted white box, much like in front of 417 Columbia, recently appeared on the street in front of 517 State Street. A sinkhole recently appeared there in a patched area that had been worked on, I believe, earlier this year by DPW or National Grid. Someone excavated the street, worked on the pipes below, and they eventually patched the hole, only to have a sinkhole appear months later. DPW will be excavating the area again, likely covering a much larger portion of the street than the original excavation.

ONE MORE TIME, PLEASE.
Sinkhole, and a deep one, is located
under the cone in the middle.
500 block of State Street

Finally, at least for now, and as I reported on a few days ago, DPW has cut the pavement in front of 360 Columbia to get at a problem below the street. The area of street to be removed and worked on there is at least 250 square feet in size.

Notice the patched area in middle of
cut out area. That is likely the location
of a sinkhole. 300 block of Columbia Street

Am I missing anything? I'm sure something else needing attention will soon appear (or reappear). Stay tuned for updates, and watch where you step into the street, especially on that truck route!