Broken sewer pipe causes 10-foot-deep washout at Iowa shopping center
By Cynthia Fodor
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DES MOINES, Iowa (KCCI) — A large hole has opened up in the alley behind the Hy-Vee at the Uptown Shopping Center at 42nd Street and University.
According to the property manager, an old storm sewer pipe broke, slowly eroding the ground around it.
This type of erosion is known as a washout.
At first, crews resurfacing the pavement thought a large piece of machinery had fallen into a sinkhole 10 feet deep. This washout is not a sinkhole, although the terminology is often used interchangeably.
It turns out an original clay storm sewer pipe had disconnected, leaking water for what appears to be a long time, eroding the earth around it.
The washout exposes the foundation of the Hy-Vee building.
The property manager says the building is structurally safe.
City crews have not yet settled on a solution to repair the pipe, and are concerned about rain in the forecast.
“We’ll probably need to cover the hole to keep the rain out of the hole. We do have an inlet from the south that comes into here that’s currently collapsed but the water is still going to come in and so we need to connect that in so it doesn’t continue to wash out as it has so far,” said Patrick Beane of Des Moines Public Works.
The city hopes to begin repair work on the issue as early as Monday.
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