Stalled street fix leaves hole in the ground for a month, Detroiters say
DETROIT (FOX 2) - Residents in a Detroit neighborhood on the west side say a stalled street project has left a large hole in the road.
Neighbors say they have reported the massive hole in their street to the city and have received no help. The broken concrete hole is filled with standing water, which residents say is a major problem.
"We’ve had a hole in our street for about a month now," said Torie Anderson, a resident of Detroit's Greenwich Park. "Not only is it a physical eyesore, but it impedes our ability to walk our sidewalks."
Residents say they’ve made their voices heard to city officials.
"There’s an app called SeeClickFix," Anderson said. "I have been encouraged to use it to report issues around the city.
"We reported this issue to this app several times and every time we report it the city says the issue has been resolved and as you can see the hole is still there."
"My message to the city is treat us like the suburbs," said Gerald McMurray.
Anderson also says she contacted her local council representative, Angela Whitfield Calloway, but is still waiting for a response.
"One of her campaign promises was clean streets Detroit," she said. "We are in her very own neighborhood, our streets are literally open.
"Thank you for listening - you guys have given a quicker response than our elected officials."
FOX 2 reached out to city officials to find out what’s going on with the repair work and officials say residents did everything they were supposed to.
"The first issue was resolved - a couple of months ago there was a water main break, it was leaking, we had a contractor come out and repair it," said Bryan Peckinpaugh, a spokesman with the Detroit Water and Sewerage Department. "That’s why when residents continued to use the app to report this issue they continued to received the message 'Your issue has been closed.'"
What residents had not been told is that work crews discovered a second problem in this same spot that prevented the road from being restored.
"Unfortunately the gate valve that’s separate from the water main pipe, that was attached to the water main, broke," he said.
City officials say crews now have to repair the gate valve this week, and then the street will be restored. Before the construction season ends, Peckinpaugh said the cement and asphalt will be fixed.
Peckinpaugh said the city will review how it communicates about ongoing issues in neighborhoods
"The Improve Detroit app is very effective of course there’s always opportunities for improvement," he said. "We could’ve done a better job at communicating with the residence especially those who reported the issue on the block."