Washington Street Culvert Emergency Repair

Ciorba Group performed an emergency inspection, designed repairs and performed construction inspection after a sink hole opened along Washington Avenue. Below the sink hole, 45’ below roadway grade, was a 10’ diameter, 180’ long stone pipe arch constructed in 1904 carrying the Waukegan River. It was discovered that a portion of the arch wall had collapsed causing the sink hole. In addition to the road closure, numerous utilities cross the area of the sinkhole including sanitary, storm sewer, water main, and a vital ATT fiber optic line. In the span of 2 months, a monumental effort was undertaken to open cut the pipe arch and replace it with a 10’ diameter precast concrete pipe.