Rising water gives Longmeadow motorist sinking feeling

Aug. 4, 2016 | Chris Goudreau
cgoudreau@thereminder.com

The back end of a Longmeadow resident’s 2004 Mercury Grand Marquis sedan hangs suspended in the air after the vehicle became trapped in a sinkhole caused by a water main break on July 28.
Reminder Publications photo by Chris Goudreau

LONGMEADOW – Billy Meara was on his way to Starbucks to meet up with his son for coffee, but his plans quickly changed as the front end of his 2004 Mercury Grand Marquis sedan submerged into a sinkhole caused by a water main break on July 28 on Llewellyn Street.

Meara, a 50-year resident, told Reminder Publications no signs had yet been placed on the roadway warning drivers of the water main break when he decided to drive over it around 7:55 a.m. However, there were two town employees on either side of the road.

“I saw some water coming out of the ground, I’m not saying I didn’t,” he explained. “I could see the blacktop, so I said, ‘Well, if I go slow I could get by it.’ I guess I didn’t.”

Meara, who was waiting for tow trucks and the Fire Department to remove his vehicle from the sinkhole, said he also planned to play golf that day – an activity that he still saw in his future for the day.

“It doesn’t change anything,” he noted.

He added his car sunk very slowly and he had enough time for exit the vehicle.

“I was in the car for a while and the officer, a man, came over and told me, ‘You should probably get out of the car.’ So, I got out of the car,” Meara said. “I’m not panicky.”

He commended the response time of Longmeadow public safety departments and the Department of Public Works (DPW).

Police Lt. Robert Stocks stated the DPW and Longmeadow police officers arrived on scene a short distance away from where the vehicle began to sink.

“Llewellyn Street and a section of Converse Street was temporarily closed until emergency services cleared the scene,” he added.

Town Manager Stephen Crane said the street reopened the afternoon of July 28 and the roadway is in the process of being backfilled and will be patched.

He added he’s uncertain if there was a specific cause for the water main break.

Tow truck operators and members of the Longmeadow Fire Department worked alongside one another to remove the vehicle from the sinkhole at around 10 a.m. the day of the incident. Pavement from the roadway was cracked and a thin layer of dried mud covered a portion of the street.

Fire Chief John Dearborn said when town officials arrive on scene the roadway was a “muddy river” and the DPW turned off water to the area without affecting residents of nearby homes.

“We were able to isolate it down to this very short [location],” he added. “Nobody’s without water, everybody’s got power. Gas is on. So, there’s no real public burden other than a [road closure].”

Dearborn implored residents to follow the phrase, “Turn around, don’t drown.”

He added, “If you see standing water on a road, don’t drive through it because you don’t know what’s underneath. In this case here, there was a big hole. You don’t know if a manhole’s gone or something like that.”

Water main breaks aren’t a regular occurrence in the town, Dearborn explained.

“Because of the sandy soil in Longmeadow, [the roads] wash away pretty easily,” he noted. “This is a result of a water main break, so the water came out and washed the dirt away from underneath the road … We know what the cause is. We’re not going to be like Florida having sinkholes all over the place.”

Dearborn said he doesn’t know how old the pipes are where the water main break occurred.

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