Heavy rains cause storm sewer collapse

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BROWNSTOWN

During heavy rain events, a storm sewer that goes under East Tanner Street in Brownstown fills up and causes flooding of a nearby small apartment complex.

The entrance to each apartment unit at Willow Brook Manor is level with Water Street, but the back part of the building slopes down toward a ditch.

The large amount of rain the area receives in a short period of time has resulted in the storm sewer collapsing.

“What that has caused is the water to back up when it rains real hard and real fast, and water can’t drain away from that area, and it flooded some of the apartment basements and the garages underneath,” Clerk-Treasurer David Willey said.

Dale Shelton with the town’s street department said cameras recently were brought in to look at the storm sewer’s pipe, and it was discovered that the pipe and a box both have collapsed.

Since both of those are 12 to 14 feet deep, Shelton said he doesn’t have the necessary equipment to make the repairs.

Willey said two companies were contacted to receive quotes, and only one responded.

The Brownstown Town Council recently awarded the project to Lawyer Excavation Inc. in Seymour after it submitted a quote of $11,180.

“They’ll come in and put a new box in and fix it where we can get into the top. If it ever gets stopped up, we can get down in it and clean it,” Shelton said.

Willey said a ground cave-in in the area of the apartment complex was reported about a month ago. A family member of one of the residents also had called town hall reporting flooding issues.

“I thought we would just need to move fast on this,” Willey said of seeking quotes for the project.

Shelton said so far, flooding has happened twice at the apartment complex.

“It has got to be done,” he said of the importance of fixing the problem.

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