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| Probably parked over the plugged hole in Kendall Street, November 2017 |
I think the patched hole from the collapse is under this
scissor-lift parked on Kendall Street outside the Vue site.
The results were fairly spectacular and it’s a crying shame I
had no opportunity to get a photo of the collapse itself. As I left Gosford on Friday
at peak hour, water was flowing fast down the gutter of Donnison Street East at
Baker Street, one block back from Mann Street. As I inched up and around the
curve of Donnison Street East to the roundabout (traffic circle) at Showground
Road, it was running across the road in a great sheet of water and everyone was
going slow and looking around for the source.
When I got to the roundabout, I could see it was coming out of
Kendall Street. I thought it must have been a pipe broken by some digging whoopsie
on one of the Kendal Street building sites, Icon or Vue, but when I got to the
bottom of Kendall Street, the road was blocked by worker wielding a stop sign
who told me access was denied until the roadworkers had arrived and patched the
hole in the road. Then, behind her and right outside the Vue site, I spotted the
water bubbling up fast out of a burst water main under Kendall Street itself.
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| Big patch over a dodgy bit of road next to the Icon site, November 2017 |
Now, all is calm and all is quiet. But when I went back yesterday to see the aftermath, a site manager
told me it was the second time a
heavy truck had fallen through Kendall Street and it was because when the pipes
below had been laid in the first half of the 20th century, the pipes
were of a really flimsy material and they were not properly supported by the
ground under them. With that lack of proper support, the road sags under the
weight of big trucks delivering and taking away heavy loads and, sooner or
later, holes open up under their tyres due to the sagging. Utility pipe-laying
regulations were not always as stringent back then as they are now.
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| Still damp holes and still muddy verge after the broken water main, November 2017 |
Soggy holes beside the road showing more damage from the burst
water main, helped along by the load of heavy trucks on Kendall Street every
day of the week now.
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| Hotmix in the gutter after the broken water main was plugged, November 2017 |
Hot mix filling up a big hole the water opened up where it ran
down to and then across Showground Road and then down into Donnison Street East
and Baker Street. Just out of the photo to the right there's a short but sharp decline down to Showground Road so it wouldn't do for this edge of the road to collapse. It would shut down both lanes of Showground Road.
Extra
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| Looking south-west down Mann Street, Gosford's main street, November 2017 |
Looking south-west down Mann Street from the Imperial Centre.
We can see the fourth crane in central Gosford down there near
the southern end of Mann Street, behind the ATO site, which is on the corner of
Mann Street and Georgiana Terrace.
Baker Street is where the pair of small white apartment towers
sit.
Before very long, with all the building sites on Mann Street and
close by, Gosford will become a forest of cranes. What a change that will make
to our little town at the mouth of the lovely Narara Valley.
Early birds, there are another 3 pages to come today so stick around for half an hour.
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Be nice.