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| Updated: 4/03/2012 10:28 pm |
Published: 4/03/2012 5:46 pm |
NORTH LITTLE ROCK, AR - The City of North Little Rock is installing sidewalks on Lochridge Road between Topf and Fairway, but the project has come to a standstill.
Lynn Ross's driveway sunk in. Now neighbors are now complaining sewer water leaking into their homes is to blame.
Ross describes her front yard as an explosion where her driveway used to be. "I did not expect to come home Monday afternoon to find a 5 foot deep hole in my drive area."
Ross and her neighbor, Kari Mogensen, say this isn't the first of the waste water problems. Both women say their foundations are crumbling, their homes are rotting, and their floors are buckling.
Mogensen's crawl space filled up with so much wastewater it knocked her HVAC unit out. She couldn't pump the water out fast enough to get the crawl space dry to install a new unit. "The water continues to come under my house. I'm getting mold, and my dogs are getting sick."
North Little Rock Wastewater put out a statement saying they are, "Making a minor repair to a sewer main and relocating the sewer service connection from beneath the driveway while a contractor is installing new sidewalks in the area. This is simply a precautionary measure. North Little Rock Wastewater has received no report of problems related to this sewer main or service."
North Little Rock City Engineer Chris Wilbourn says there is a problem. "From looking at the sinkhole and inspecting it, we're not sure, but it looks like that hole has been there for quite awhile."
Wilbourn says they are trying to figure out how to fix the problem. "I think we'll learn a little bit more once we uncover the portion of the sewer line that's going to be replaced. I'm glad we're doing the sidewalk program and we uncovered it."
Wilbourn says more investigation is needed. Right he says he can't tell if the seepage issues are connected to the sinkhole.
Both Ross and Mogensen say they've never had water problems until recently. Ross says when construction on the sidewalks started is when her water problems escalated.
