3 years in a row?!...

Last week Thursday we received a letter from our gas company; Semco.  It said that they will be replacing the gas main on our street and also the line that goes up the property to the house "service".  It said that the work was going to begin April 4th.

EGADS! Is my first response. We JUST had our driveway repaved!  What could this mean for the structure of the driveway.  And I was kicking myself that we were talked into only 4" of cement rather than 6".  Our cement guy said that we wouldn't need that much strength since we were already done with the garage, etc.  Oh why do we allow others to make us second guess ourselves?  OH, and Jerome is in Dusseldorf starting April 2nd.  Now I'm going to have to handle this on my own!...of course!  Did the gas company know that Bruce Township had JUST resurfaced the street at the end of the summer last year?  Does Bruce Township know that Semco is planning on chopping up the newly resurfaced street?  Couldn't they give us more time and kind of wait until after the ground thaws so that we can relocate some plants (...again!).

This would be three years in a row that our yard will be trashed.

Jerome's response was to immediately go outside to assess where exactly the gas line possibly goes - engineers...so practical.  The meter is on the east side of the house and if you look in a straight line down the property to the street, there are 3 trees and yes, several rose bushes in the direct path.  Plus we have all those limestone slabs, but it seems like it may avoid all of them (fingers crossed).

I gave the letter to Jerome so that the next day (Friday) he could call the gas company to let them know about the driveway and the such.  Also he wanted them to tell him where the line is currently.  However, he was unable to call because he was so busy at work and didn't think about letting me know so that I could call.  Now we had the whole weekend to ponder what is going to take place in the next week or two.

We checked on Google Maps to see where exactly this work is supposed to take place and we called our neighbors to see if they received the letter too.

So, on Monday, Jerome calls the gas company first thing.  He then calls me to tell me what he found out.  The lady told him that in their records they show that our line is already plastic and has been replaced in 1973, they will not be touching our property.  YAY!  Jump for Joy!...but then, hey, wait...they are going to leave in a line that is almost 40 years old?...really?...hummm.

Later in the day I thought I'd make a stop at the Village offices to see if they are aware of what is going on.  The lady was nice enough as I told her that the gas company would likely be tearing up the brand new street.  She said "yes, isn't that a shame".  I thought YES! Couldn't they get their schedules together and have figured this out before they wasted the taxpayers money and created so much waste?  I said "well, if they really do tear up the road and have to resurface it again, can I make a suggestion?  Can they install cement gutters along the curb edge for the water to flow down the hill, because the asphalt is already crumbling from the water flowing underneath".  She said "suggestion noted"...as she had a piece of post-it and a pen - which was still blank when I left.

That night I told Jerome my concerns about the line being nearly 40 years old and he told me that I should call.  I think he was getting annoyed.

So, yesterday I called.  I spoke the the same lady he spoke to the day before...but with a different result.  She told me that our address is on the work order because our line is so old.  They will be replacing the line.  I tried to explain my concerns but it seemed to confuse her, so I asked if I could set up a meeting with the Field Service Technician...and could I have his number.  She called later to give me the number and name of the Tech.  We made an appointment for this morning - and before we left for work the guy came out and told us what we can expect.

He told us that they use a hydraulic boring device and it will bore from across the street, under the street up our property (2 feet below grade) and directly to our meter.  There would be very little to no disturbance.  They are able to direct the bore by remote.  There may be some digging close to the meter and in regards to the rose bushes, they would dig them out in a large ball, put them aside and then when they are done, place them back.  They will not start on our part of the street for another 6 weeks.

He made it sound all so nice and easy-peesie.  Stay tuned...

Comments

Jan Marie said…
I feel your pain. Our other house on Torrey Rd has had so many construction jobs and detours I could scream.

They used the boring thingy on our driveway which promptly caved in slightly the next year and now collects standing water which freezes in the winter.

When I complained about this they said, "well you wouldn't let us take up your driveway and when we bore it removed soil that we cannot replace under your driveway."

No one plans anything in government or utilities. A main road by my house was under construction for a whole summer with the detour going by my house. Not two weeks after they finished this beautiful new road, did Consumers Energy dig smack dab in the middle of a 4 lane road. I have not seen them dig since but every year they must fix the pot holes that develop there during the winter.

Our township laid new sewer and water lines along a main road one summer. Businesses suffered because work was slow. Three years later they had to dig it all back up because they decided to put in a left turn lane and needed to widen the road. Wasted $$$ and wasted time. Now of course they don't have any extra money.

In Grand Blanc Twp they waste money on getting studies done on everything before they act on anything. I am waiting for them to get a study done to see if they need to have a study done.

The spent $$ having a study done to rate the roads in worst to best order for ease of road replacement. They promptly disregarded that study and repaved the third worst road instead. Hmmm must have forgotten to put roads that trustees live on at the top.

AND to top it off. We got a nasty note from the nit wit mail lady today saying we needed to straighten up our mailbox because it was leaning and might tip over. Duh...how stupid is that??? She knows damn well it was hit twice with snow by the plow. It is barely leaning and we don't like it either but unfortunately it is frozen in the ground. Our mailbox post was in good shape too. The shear force of the plow, snow, and probably speed broke off the 4X6 post which was not rotted at all.

I get so frustrated with mistakes and mismanagement that I could scream.

See if you can get something in writing about replacement if there is a cave in or partial cave in. We had dirt collapse all over our yard which resulted in them bringing in some dirt that to this day will not grow anything but brought in grubs. We were not the only ones who got bad dirt. We also bought 5 yards of top soil ourselves to fill in the resulting valleys.
Jabbles said…
I hate reading about wasted time/money like that. I would not be that hard to coordinate the repairs at the same time.
Looks like at least your yard will not have to suffer.
baby sister said…
@Jan - you're scaring me with this: "They used the boring thingy on our driveway which promptly caved in slightly the next year and now collects standing water which freezes in the winter.

When I complained about this they said, "well you wouldn't let us take up your driveway and when we bore it removed soil that we cannot replace under your driveway."

They say they won't have to bore under our driveway, but I'm worried about tree roots and they will have to bore under our sidewalk and by our cement window wells...I guess time will tell. I saw them working on another street yesterday - seems like there's three guys doing all this work. They were busy digging holes in everyone's yards.
baby sister said…
...plus, did you see my post on my garden blog? On Sunday (as I was shoveling the snow!) I noticed a pretty big hole that was dug out of my limestone garden. I'm not sure if they were checking if the soil was still frozen or if they were stealing some tulips...the dirt from that hole is no where to be found...very bizarre!
Jan Marie said…
Do you think it was a cave in? Maybe a drainage tile collapsed?

The missing dirt seems weird.

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