Eric Meislahn sent along these photos of a pavement grinder that fell into a muddy area and almost rolled over while preparing pavement on Fir Street between 6th and A streets Feb 11. Two giant tow trucks were required to hoist it out, he noted.
According to City of Edmonds Senior Utilities Engineer Mike De Lilla, the incident occurred during permanent paving patch work for the waterline replacement project taking place around the Fir and 8th area. “The area of pavement was being ground down by the road grinder and was at the edge of the road,” De Lilla said in an email. “The shoulder subgrade compaction in that area was poor resulting in the grinder sinking. After they got the grinder unstuck, they amended/stabilized the subgrade and the shoulder in the failure area so that the issue was resolved.”
De Lilla said the watermain replacement is being done to:
– replace older mains
– improve overall flow and pressure, since most of the mains in the area are only 4 inches in diameter
· address the fact that the city has had some main breaks in this area in the recent past
“The area is between two pressure zones with some dead ends and we are looping the respective zones so that it will improve overall service/flow in the area,” he said.
This reminds me of about ten years back when a tractor sunk into some mud near Snohomish, and the guy rented another tractor to pull it out, which also got stuck… then was having trouble finding anyone willing to rent him a third.