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Community Corner

Caved-in Trail in Oak Tree Park Closed For Repairs

Misaligned culverts caused washout and collapse of a section of the path along the creek.

An old telephone pole that served as a bridge decades ago was partly to blame for the collapse of an approximately 10-foot section of path in in Brentwood.

This part of the path will remain closed while crews work to fix the problem. Jim Nahmensen, the department's superintendent, hopes to complete the project before the predicted rain comes on Friday.

The telephone pole happened to be in the way when the existing 3-foot diameter culvert was installed. The result was that two sections of the pipe didn't match up when the second section was installed. The gap allowed water to escape, which eventually caused the cave-in. Nahmensen thought Monday's rain finally did it in.

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Nahmensen said the pipes were old. A staffer who has worked for the city for 28 years didn't even remember the pipes being installed, Nahmensen said.

Staffer Jim Pritchett used a Bobcat to dig out what he could to uncover the problem on Tuesday.

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"A little sink hole turned into a nice big project," Pritchett said.

On Wednesday, Nahmensen's crew will use a large backhoe to pull out the old pipe, which is steel reinforced, about eight feet long and about 10 feet below the path. Then the crew will remove the old telephone pole and install a new piece of pipe connecting to the old one, with a collar to make it tight. After that, they will fill it all back in with a rock base and repave the path.

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