story from the front line: DC Water creating utility trenches under the north-south alley west of 1st St NW, north of Rhode Island Av NW

See the message and pics below from north Bloomingdale resident Jim Myers who lives along the north-south alley west of 1st St NW (and north of Rhode Island Avenue NW) where DC Water is installing its brine-freezing pipes in trenches.

Date: Sat, 19 Jul 2014 14:37:37 -0400
Subject: Tunnel Madness in DC!! 

Hi neighbors,
           
For those of you lucky enough to NOT be retired, and therefore away all day during the heavy construction in the alleys, I'm sending you these pix so you can see what's actually been going on under those steel plates that rattle every night as traffic speeds over them.

             
Being right alongside the alley, we've been stunned by the extent of the violence, disruptions, and scope of the work.   They've caused damage to the inside and outside of our house--cracks inside; scrapes outside--and also on the outside of the garage and along the fence.  So we have a claim pending, with the adjuster coming Tuesday.
           
As some of you know, they already cut the power to the streetlight on the block.  One of our neighbors feels that they caused a surge or something that blew out the A/C in his basement apartment, and that it can't just be a coincidence that they were trenching around his power lines in the alley at the time.
              
Oh, and who in the near vicinity does not have the black tar and asphalt stones (from the so-called 'cold patch' around the steel plates) now tracked all over their porches and into the houses??
       

Beyond that unending nuisance, I think I'm about to lose it because of the constant noise!
                       
I swear the fillings in my teeth were rattling when they were using the jackhammer to break up the concrete in the alley!!  And the hammer drill for the rebar (see all the pix) was not much better.  That's not to mention all the noisy diesel backhoes, bulldozers, dump trucks, concrete trucks and the like.
                                     
We'd like to leave during the daytime to escape all this, but we do NOT trust these guys to not do further damage, or, do stupid things!  For example, they were simply slamming the backhoe scoop shovel as hard as they could down onto the the alley concrete to break it up for digging the trench.  Amazingly high tech, no??  As things started falling over in the house and wine bottles in the wine cellar started inching forward right off the shelves, I had a major meltdown and marched  out there and put an immediate stop to that until they brought in a conventional jackhammer later that day.  (Still bad in terms of the heavy vibrations, but far better than the unbelievable slamming of the backhoe shovel.)    As another example, they brought in a concrete truck that was totally too wide for the job since it barely fit in the alley as it was and the uneven plates had it rocking dangerously close to the house.  After my extreme bitching, they finally brought in a truck that was a foot narrower.

Feel free to pass the pix on to others, especially those that are 'downstream' of all this chaos so they can see what is in store for them!

SAWED THRU BRICK AND CONCRETE AND BEGINNING OF EXCAVATION OF TRENCH

MEASURING DEPTH

NOTE LADDER REQUIRED TO CLIMB OUT!

  

STANDING ON OUR FRONT PORCH - LOOKING AT THE DRIVEWAY OF THE CORNER HOUSE AT 1st & the east-west cross street

PUSHING TWO MAIN PIPES (BLACK, SIDE-BY-SIDE) THROUGH THE TRENCH

COVERING MAIN PIPES WITH 'FOAM BOARD' TO INSULATE COOLANT (MINUS 30 DEGREES LIQUID)

SPRAYING URETHANE FOAM ON TOP OF AND ALL AROUND THE MAIN COOLANT PIPES

NOTE HAZMAT MASK!  (HOW MUCH OF THAT IS GOING INTO OUR HOMES?)

TEARING UP ALLEY APRONS AND W STREET AFTER JACKHAMMERING

PUMPING OUT FLOOD WATER FROM RAINS

TRENCHING east-west cross STREET NW AND MOUTH OF ALLEY

BACKFILLING TRENCH PARTWAY WITH A MID-LAYER OF CONCRETE ON TOP OF SPRAYED

 FOAM INSULATION(NEVER MIND THEY ARE TEARING EVERYTHING OUT AGAIN IN 2 YEARS!) 

                                      

HAMMER DRILLING THE EDGE OF EXISTING CONCRETE FOR INSERTING IRON REBARS
ABOUT EVERY 8 INCHES

MORE FUN THAN GOING TO THE DENTIST--REALLY RATTLED MY TEETH FILLINGS

POURING BOTTLED WATER ON THE HAMMER DRILL TO COOL THE DRILL BIT--SO HI TECH!!

ON TOP OF CONCRETE, MORE PIPES! 'FOR COMPRESSORS AND COMMUNICATIONS' I WAS TOLD

NOTE THE 'COLD PATCH' (TAR/ASPHALT WITH STONES) EVERYWHERE, USED AROUND THE STEEL PLATES,

AND NOW ALL UP AND DOWN THE SIDEWALKS AND EMBEDDED IN SOLES OF OUR SHOES

AND NOW ALL OVER IN THE HOUSE

THE LAST STEPS SHOULD BE REPLACEMENT OF THE CONCRETE ALLEY UNDER-LAYMENT AND THEN THE RED BRICKS

ALLEY SUPPOSED TO BE AS THEY FOUND IT (BELOW, BEFORE THEY TRASHED IT)--STAY TUNED AND SEE!!