HUDseen Predicted This Mess! [with update]

This morning while in the 400 block of Warren Street, I was able to answer a pair of questions HUDseen had posed in an article from May 16th regarding the repaving of the street done by a company called Bob Talham, Inc. that looked suspect.  I asked the following:  Should Talham's work fail anytime soon, who will repair it?  Who will pay to repair it?

In an article from two weeks ago, I showed that two sinkholes under the new pavement in the 400 block of Warren had been repaired -- but I didn't know who did the work.  I also mentioned that a third sinkhole was forming in the block, near 414 Warren.  HUDseen PREDICTED ALL OF THIS!  In the May article, titled Let's See How Well This All Holds Up, I showed pictures of Talham repaving a portion of 6th Street and 2 blocks of Warren Street in the rain. "Just watch, soon it will begin to come apart bit by bit right along the two long seams and elsewhere," I wrote.

This morning, in a light rain, National Grid's pipe replacement contractor Mullen was replacing work by National Grid's paving contractor Talham that had covered up the trench that Mullen had dug, worked in and filled several months ago.  Five Mullen workers removed Talham's asphalt, filled in the hole that was no longer supporting the street, and capped it with new asphalt.  In the rain.  This was the third sinkhole Mullen has repaired in the lower half of the north side of the 400 block of Warren.  If Mullen will be billing anyone for this repair work, it will be National Grid, not the City of Hudson, even though Warren Street is owned by the City of Hudson and maintained by Robert Perry's Department of Public Works.

Yesterday, while bicycling down Warren, I came across yet another sinkhole, the first one to appear in the 300 block of Warren -- in front of 350.   Like the other three sinkholes on that side of Warren, this one initially started small and is difficult to notice, but soon it won't be possible to ignore.  

After just two months, sinkhole #4!

This morning while bicycling up the 400 block of Warren, practically across the street from Mullen's repaving activity, I came across a FIFTH SINKHOLE -- this one near 403 Warren, the first on the south side of Warren.  I told the Mullen workers that they might want to walk over and have a look at it while they've got the machinery and men available.  It was still lightly raining.

Number 5!  Soon to be repaired?

It's worth repeating for the second or third time since a few months ago:  During April's informal Common Council meeting, Robert Perry claimed that "Mullen should be wrapping up on Warren Street in early May."  Three months later, during his DPW report at last night's meeting, our $117,000 Great Communicator on Zoom didn't mention one word about all the street work going on in Hudson, including on Warren Street, nor anything about why Mullen can still be found digging and repaving on Warren Street repairing sinkholes in early July that are popping up like mushrooms after a summer rain.  No council members asked Mr. Perry how National Grid's gas line replacement project is going, why Mullen crews can still be found on Warren Street, when the project will end for good and when Mullen and Talham will no longer be seen or heard working on our streets. 

If at least FIVE SINKHOLES have appeared on Warren Street under Talham's new pavement within just two months (May and June), with three of them having been attended to, what does the immediate and long-term future hold for our many streets that have been worked on in the past year?  THIS WHOLE THING IS A COMPLETE SHITSHOW AND HUDseen SAW IT COMING! 

Mullen crew replacing asphalt that Talham
 installed two months ago but failed.  Mullen
filled that trench in December or January.

Last week, a friendly Mullen supervisor overseeing a large crew digging and burying plastic gas pipes along the south side of the 300 block of Warren told me that once they finish on North 3rd street in Hudson, they will be headed to Albany to do the same gas line work there.  Yesterday, while in Albany near the Honest Weight Food Co-op, I saw a familiar sight.  A large crew of Talham workers was repaving a residential street as part of that city's gas line replacement project.  While Talham was in Hudson late last week covering the trench along South and North 4th Street with temporary concrete and leaving cones and metal plates all over the place for the weekend, they were nowhere to found in Hudson yesterday -- MIA, if you will.  It seems that they had more important work to be done in Albany.

Talham working their magic in Albany yesterday.

Hudseen's next prediction:  Possibly years from now, things will get so bad with sinkholes that at least two blocks of Warren Street will have to be completely or partially repaved.  (Work was done along three blocks, 3rd to 6th.)

Update:  By 1 p.m., the Mullen crew had taken care of the sinkhole in front of 403 Warren that I had pointed out to them at 7:00.  4 out of 5 repaired, with more on the way soon.

Who will repaint the missing portion of 
the brand new line?  How about NO ONE!