By an edhat reader
Today on the Westside a large City of SB truck was doing some work in a manhole down the street.
Minutes later I felt my house vibrate and toilet water bubble up for a good amount of time. It also caused a sewer smell to permeate throughout my home. Is this regular maintenance or something else? I don’t remember getting a notice.
The City in their wisdom has decided to grind down and resurface a massive stretch of West Valerio Street, all the way from the Elings Park back gate to Gillespie. Depending on how you count that is about 10 blocks. ALL residents have been told they have NO ACCESS to their driveways and NO street parking from 7AM – 5PM for the entire month of June. To say this is an inconvenience is an understatement, there are few side access roads for most of the stretch, nowhere to move your car to. even worse over the past 2-3 years the street has been repeatedly closed and ripped up for sewage and water main repairs, never coordinated to take place together. Oh, and they also dropped by a notice that they will be installing numerous new speed bumps, “in response to a neighborhood petition” that neither I nor any neighbors I have asked were ever aware of. It will be nice to have the street repaired, but the problem is they have done so many repairs before they have added to the street surface height, and now in big rains the creek bed that Valerio is now floods up into parkways and yards.
Yes I’m aware of this construction but it’s not related to the sewer maintenance that took place today, quite far from W. Valerio.
I also have several friends who live on W. Valerio who advocated for the speed bumps to slow traffic speeds. Lots of kids in strollers in the area, it’s safer for everyone.
It needs to be done. But it is kind of funny they expect people to walk 10 blocks up and down THAT hill to get to their cars. Unfortunately that’s how it goes with public funds and saving money, since it’s cheaper to do entire stages in order on the whole thing than it is to break it into sections repeating the entire process.
This is not true. I live on W. Valerio. It is true that the construction is going to be going on for most of June. If you have driven there, you know it is BADLY needed. The lack of access to the driveway is for ONE DAY for each section. From just below Calle Canon to the end of upper W Valerio, for example, that day was Tuesday. That meant that everyone from that point to the end (including Calle Poniente and Marquard) had to park outside this area. The repaving of this section finished around 7 pm on Tuesday night. (We parked our cars up on Flora Vista).
Street parking in this section of W. Valerio was ALSO prohibited on Wednesday, but now it is Thursday and parking is back to normal for that section. On Wednesday, the city completed repaving on another section down the hill, from just below Calle Canon a couple of blocks down.
Residents each got postcards of what days the repaving was happening, the ONE day access in/out of the driveway would not be available for each area, and the 2-ish days of no parking.
TLDR: no access to driveway, only one day. During that day, you could park at Elings park, on Calle Canon, Flora Vista, or lower West Valerio. Maximum walk distance: 0.5 miles, which is fine for most people (admittedly not all).
Speed bumps are horrible to use in neighborhoods. If they are close to you all you hear from inside your house is that annoying slowing down and speeding up noise from cars. Or trucks that don’t bother to slow down and just hit them. Then there are those that try to get around them even if it’s just one wheel. I give those speed bumps a year. Neighbors are going to regret signing that petition.
Better than hearing brake screeches and crashing noises in between the brief whizzes.
This section of W. Valerio is between 2 elementary schools and the speed bumps are badly needed. I hated them when I moved in, but now BRING THEM ON. If you drive the speed limit (25mph or less), you’ll be fine.
Well worth it! Thanks city
Great thread jack and no one answered the question…and anyway , yes this is normal, they do ours almost every few months.
Underground utility’s were done first! Curb and access ramps for pedestrians done second and grind and paving last.
This is exactly the order and thought out.
Waaaa infrastructure improvements done correctly
Dear OP:
I have seen a city sewer rodding truck working on my block several times. I have, thank goodness, never had my toilet burble during or after; that would scare me. Sorry you got odor from the procedure, but at least your far-away, city portion of the sewer is in good shape.
My old house’s pipes are extremely gunked up and I need to have them rodded. Hope you don’t.
Be thankful they didn’t but bulb out on your road like they did on Stanley dr. That was done against neighbors will. Many letters were written against them. One busy body Karen fought for them. So many near misses p expletive don’t yield.