LVL1 temporarily closed until further notice

[Christopher Cprek]

LVL1 is temporarily closed until further notice, pending repairs to our sewage drain by MSD.

The sinkhole problem led to the Metro Department of Public Works coming out to blindly fill the hole with sand and concrete. MSD came after and filled it with dye and apparently more sand. The effect was to block the buildings sewage drain, thus rendering restrooms inoperational.

This has turned into a 3 way finger pointing match between the landlord, dept of public works, and MSD. I believe the German word is klusterfokken.

Saturday's work did not occur. MSD is scheduled to begin work on Tuesday, but the landlord is trying to escalate the work asap.

Information has been scarce, as we are in between 3 parties. But I will continue to provide updates as I receive them.

Apologies for any inconvenience. Hopefully this will be resolved soon.

Chris

[Jeff Johnson]

Thanks chris.  Nervy of them to blame landlord.

[Barton Chittenden]

 I believe the German word is klusterfokken.

Google translate gives me 'Riesendurcheinander' which is literally 'Giant throug-one-other', it has connotations of 'A giant tangled mess' or  'A giant case of "when in trouble, when in doubt, run in circles, scream and shout"'

It lacks the piqant profanity of the English, but then that's true of most of the German language.

[Nathan Armentrout]

Does this closure mean we can't enter the building or can I stop by and pick things up?

[Christopher Cprek]

You can stop by and pick up things. We just can't have any substantial
occupancy without working restrooms.

Chris

[Nick Sturtzel]

" You can stop by and pick up things. We just can't have any substantial
occupancy without working restrooms."

Do buckets count?

[Christopher Cprek]

Update:

MSD has been out twice today inspecting the issue. They will be
returning with a camera either this evening or tomorrow morning.

Right now, there is fighting between between the cities internal
agencies around this. MSD's records show this drain going to the
Broadway drainage line. But the contractor who just inspected the
place claims that it goes to an undocumented historic drainage line on
Logan St. MSD has no records or maps of a drainage line on Logan St.
The camera is being used to determine where this line really goes.

More updates will be provided as I receive them. Thank you everyone
for your patience, and again apologies for any inconvenience.

Chris

[Chorgy]

Would a port a party in the back of the space be okay/sanitary enough to have visitors?

[Christopher Cprek]

I'm not sure if those are allowed inside of buildings. And I'm not
sure we'd want one inside even if they were. Either way, I'm hopeful
this will be resolved quickly enough that we won't have to resort to
such a thing.

Chris

[kmho...@gmail.com]

Those usually vent to the atmosphere with a chimney. But I don't know how you would get one into the building in the first place.

[Tim Miller]

they are prone to smelling bad with great ventilation and have a possibility of blue watering everything

In theory but not to be practiced:

It is possible to get them inside they are moved empty so if they get dropped they don't spill everywhere, so they can be tipped through the garage door or the way I have seen it used is to get it under low tree limbs and overhangs.

[Chorgy]

I didn't mean putting one inside the space... That really would be smelly.

Just out back in the alley. Would probably need a lock to keep the nasties out. 

You could put one in front on the street against the curb, but a permit from the city is needed for that. The alley might be a right of way, so that might require a permit as well.

--

chorgy

[Jeff Johnson]

It would be a bum magnet.  Wait it out.

[Glenn Barrett]

You could put it in the side door alley that doesn't have street access.

[DE 'Tad' Heckaman III]

Anyone have an RV? PortaLVL1 anyone? :)

On Mon, Jun 18, 2012 at 3:22 PM, Jeff Johnson <jeffj...@gmail.com> wrote:

--
Tad Heckaman

[Randy C.]

Actually I do... looking to sell it har har.



On Jun 18, 3:30 pm, "DE 'Tad' Heckaman III" <dougl...@gmail.com>
wrote:

[Christopher Cprek]

UPDATE:

The landlord's team has has rerouted the roof drain to flow into the
alley itself, rather than continue washing out underneath the alley.

MSD has 4 trucks at our place as I type this. It is confirmed that
buildings in our alley are connected to a previously unmapped sewer
drain going out to Logan St. It is also confirmed that MSD filled this
up with sand, thus leading us to our current unfortunate situation.

MSD is going to be vacuuming out all the sand (from them) and debris
(from rainwater washout) from this newly discovered drainage line.
This is going to happen either today, or at the latest tomorrow. It
depends on how long it takes them to mark all the utility poles and
clear any other hiccups.

Tonight's meeting is tentatively cancelled, unless work is performed
today and we have some time to perform any necessary clean-up. If this
changes, I will update everyone and the Tues meeting will be back on.

Chris

[Pat McCarthy]

Anyone (Landlord.......) monitoring to make sure there's no "accidental" backwash into the boneyard? And, to get them to make sure the connection between our drains and the sewer lines are clear? Might this be a good time to mention the cleanout/check valve install questions posed recently?

Patrick McCarthy

T 502.476.9878
C 502.939.1756
pmcc...@humana.com

The information transmitted is intended only for the person or entity to which it is addressed
and may contain CONFIDENTIAL material. If you receive this material/information in error,
please contact the sender and delete or destroy the material/information.

[Christopher Cprek]

The landlord is at the space monitoring the work. I've mentioned
installing the backflow preventers and the landlord wants to have them
installed.

Chris

[Raj]

Wouldn't the dye test indicate where it's going?  Once they inject the dye, wouldn't there have to be a manhole access on Logan street to see the dye flowing there, and therefore make it obvious there is indeed a line there?  Or, is this a case where it's ending up in a known line further downstream, but in checking all the manholes of the possible routes they find no dye, leaving them to wonder how it got there? 

Regardless,  thanks for coordinating and monitoring what's going and keeping us informed.

---

From: Christopher Cprek <paxtitania@gmail.com>
To: lvl1@googlegroups.com
Sent: Monday, June 18, 2012 11:29 AM

Subject: Re: {LVL1} Re: LVL1 temporarily closed until further notice

[Brad Luyster]

Thanks to the sand, I think most of the dye ended up in our basement.

[bruce]

Dang...

There goes Hoffa's body/hiding space... Never thought MSD would find it!!!

Who knew!

[JAC_101]

And so we now have a branding opportunity..

 

Because they "confirmed that buildings in our alley are connected to a previously unmapped sewer" our chance to market "Teenage Mutant Ninja Hackers" items has arrived.

 

We have a pizza (poppalinos) tie-in or sandwhiches (jimmy johns) for toy distribution.  A comic book is needed (no tenticle stuff, we are americans, we don't do that sort of stuff). 

 

We need to borescope the sinkhole for a live action intro with change over to animation for the saturday cartoon. 

 

 

 

 

[Pat McCarthy]

What do they FEED you anyway?????

 

Patrick McCarthy

 

T 502.476.9878

C 502.939.1756

pmcc...@humana.com

 

From: lv...@googlegroups.com [mailto:lv...@googlegroups.com] On Behalf Of JAC_101
Sent: Tuesday, June 19, 2012 2:04 PM
To: lv...@googlegroups.com
Subject: Re: {LVL1} Re: LVL1 temporarily closed until further notice

 

And so we now have a branding opportunity..

The information transmitted is intended only for the person or entity to which it is addressed
and may contain CONFIDENTIAL material. If you receive this material/information in error,
please contact the sender and delete or destroy the material/information.

[Essobi]

Did he eat the brownies in the freezer again? :D

Essobi

[Pat McCarthy]

Are we the only “winners” on the entire block? Or are other tennents flushing their toilets, not knowing that, deep in their own sub basements, 4’ long millipedes are holding their noses and going “ewwwwwww”

 

Patrick McCarthy

 

T 502.476.9878

C 502.939.1756

pmcc...@humana.com

 

[Christopher Cprek]

I don't know Pat, but they seem to not be offline. I think our problem
is compounded because sand was dumped directly in our lines.

UPDATE:

Lines were marked last night. 5 trucks are outside LVL1 this morning
performing work. Our landlord is going to call me with updates when he
receives them from the work crews.

Chris

[Christopher Cprek]

UPDATE:

MSD work is still ongoing. I stopped by the space after work to check
out the progress. Work crews have dug a very large access hole and
covered it up with a metal slab.

From what I've heard, MSD has not yet located the correct drainage
line. They did discover a 6" gas line, which is slowing down the work
for safety reasons.

According to the landlord the crews will be back either tonight or
tomorrow morning to resume work.

Hang in there spacers!

Chris

[JAC_101]

Now is the time to prepare a lair.
Undocumented underground structures are common and we now have an opportunity to have MSD find one and add bathrooms.

It is time for LVL1 to have an undocumented splinter group with its own lair.

Time to accept the creation of a insurgiency group that follows its own agenda.

Its time to stop typing this stuff and become undocumented...(that is not an illegal alien joke).

 

[Randy C.]

I'd settle for a really awesome underground movie and gaming theater.
Maybe an elevator tube... or trap door for people that don't sign
in...

[Dan Bowen]

We already have a secret sealed manhole entrance.

Sent from my iPad

[Pat McCarthy]

Yes, but now we have a chance, with the appropriate bit of social engineering, to have the city enlarge the space, erect cinderblock walls, perhaps some mood lighting................

Patrick McCarthy

T 502.476.9878
C 502.939.1756
pmcc...@humana.com

-----Original Message-----
From: lv...@googlegroups.com [mailto:lv...@googlegroups.com] On Behalf Of Dan Bowen
Sent: Thursday, June 21, 2012 12:12 AM
To: lv...@googlegroups.com
Subject: Re: {LVL1} Re: LVL1 temporarily closed until further notice

[Christopher Cprek]

UPDATE:

MSD has been unsuccessful in locating the exit tunnel so far. The
excavator got to about 14 feet down and there's no tunnel to be found.
MSD is scratching their heads.

A robot camera was deployed to trace down the exit. Northbound exit
was blocked. Southbound exit was blocked. Eastbound was also blocked.
Trying to access the other direction from the Broadway tunnel proved
to be too much for the robot. The tunnel is 12 foot in diameter and
the robot cannot make it up the slope. Sidenote: The MSD guys are
talking about drainage tunnels around this area approaching 16 to 20
feet in diameter. In other sections of the city there are tunnels
approaching 35 feet in diameter!!

Now the plan is follow the drain out directly from our basement drain
out to (???)

The concrete in the Undead Zone has been saw cut for a 3 foot square
access point to deploy the robot. The landlord is bringing in a
plumber tonight to jack hammer the rest of the concrete. This should
be enough room for MSD to clear the line when they return tomorrow.

The landlord moved some of the equipment in that area (I'm assuming
the mill and metal lathe) into the workshop, and closed the fire door
to prevent as much concrete dust as possible. But there is and will be
some mess in this area once everything is finished.

Hang in there spacers! This sinkhole has turned into a crazy
boondoggle, but hopefully we'll be back soon!

Chris

[Pat McCarthy]

Need to issue armor, swords, and shields, to properly battle the 15' long millipedes they will encounter

[Brad Luyster]

[Jonathan Clark]

Hey Chris,

We've got some industrial pipe following camera's and reels here at work, pretty commercial grade heavy duty stuff.  I'd say there's at least a couple hundred feet worth of length on these things.  Don't know if it's anything they could use, if so just let me know.

[JAC_101]

So...

 

 " The tunnel is 12 foot in diameter "

It is sealed in three directions.  With only one direction left too steep to traverse.

 

This sounds like the fabled tunnel to "hell".  Once entered there is only one way out, go thru to the other side.  I suggest we find the MSD worker named Homer and follow him through to the end.

 

Culture test:

If you heard "Homer" and thought "Simpson", you are too ignorant to use the internet.  Please turn in all user-ids and passwords and proceed to the reprocessing center and enter the wonderful state of being known as "soylent green".

 

 

[Christopher Cprek]

Thanks Jon. I let the landlord know about it. He'll be talking with
MSD in the morning and if they think they can use the pipe cameras he
will give you a call. If they don't have an excavator attachment, I'm
not sure how much farther you'd get than they did. If you send it
down, make sure to duct tape some knives to it so you can fight off
the centipede monsters that lurk in the abyss.

Chris

[Balloon502]

Is there any plans to disinfect the besment after all the work is done? Who knows what is down there.

Also is the time to label all our stuff been extended?


73 de N0OTM
Joe

JAC_101 <cabre...@insightbb.com> wrote:

[Christopher Cprek]

Yes and yes.

[Raj]

>MSD has been unsuccessful in locating the exit tunnel so far. The
>excavator got to about 14 feet down and there's no tunnel to be found.
>MSD is scratching their heads.

What do you mean by the "exit tunnel"?  Do you mean a sewer line that our space drains into, which then connects to an adjacent tunnel?  Or do you mean the sinkhole just keeps getting deeper and deeper with no end in sight?

---

From: Christopher Cprek <paxtitania@gmail.com>
To: lvl1@googlegroups.com

Sent: Thursday, June 21, 2012 4:23 PM

[bruce]

i was thinking of donuts!

doh!

On Thu, Jun 21, 2012 at 4:48 PM, JAC_101 <cabre...@insightbb.com> wrote:

[Christopher Cprek]

As I understand it, it's the sewer line that our space drains into;
which branches off into 3 different directions. Each of which is
blocked with sediment/sand/debris.

Chris

On Thu, Jun 21, 2012 at 9:34 PM, Raj <rgsh...@yahoo.com> wrote:
>>MSD has been unsuccessful in locating the exit tunnel so far. The
>>excavator got to about 14 feet down and there's no tunnel to be found.
>>MSD is scratching their heads.
>
> What do you mean by the "exit tunnel"?  Do you mean a sewer line that our
> space drains into, which then connects to an adjacent tunnel?  Or do you
> mean the sinkhole just keeps getting deeper and deeper with no end in sight?
>
>
> ________________________________

> From: Christopher Cprek <paxti...@gmail.com>
> To: lv...@googlegroups.com

[John Coder]

3 different directions?????? We must generate a lot of dangerous CaCa in order for it to be moved three different directions, 
probably dangerous for it to be near to each other.

On Friday, June 22, 2012 9:27:56 AM UTC-4, Christopher wrote:

As I understand it, it's the sewer line that our space drains into;
which branches off into 3 different directions. Each of which is
blocked with sediment/sand/debris.

Chris

On Thu, Jun 21, 2012 at 9:34 PM, Raj <r...@yahoo.com> wrote:
>>MSD has been unsuccessful in locating the exit tunnel so far. The
>>excavator got to about 14 feet down and there's no tunnel to be found.
>>MSD is scratching their heads.
>
> What do you mean by the "exit tunnel"?  Do you mean a sewer line that our
> space drains into, which then connects to an adjacent tunnel?  Or do you
> mean the sinkhole just keeps getting deeper and deeper with no end in sight?
>
>
> ________________________________

> From: Christopher Cprek <p...@gmail.com>

>> p...@humana.com

[Christopher Cprek]

UPDATE:

Whatever line the have been looking for has been found! They are
currently clearing out this line and it should be draining properly
soon.

In addition, they are installing new drain lines in both the Boneyard
and the Dead Zone, along with backflow preventers. This means there
will be some concrete dust in the boneyard for the installation. I've
told Dan he can shut down our server rack (firewall, internet
connection, etc) and place a cover over it. That way we try to avoid
concrete dust being sucked into the servers as best we can. Junk that
had been piled in the floor will probably be moved elsewhere. Expect
lots of clean-up from concrete dust after all this is over.

I'll be waiting for the all-clear from MSD, and then Directors will
coordinate any necessary clean-up with members before reopening.

Thanks all,

Chris

[John Coder]

YEAH!!!!!!!

[Nathan Armentrout]

Hooray! Thank you Chris for keeping us updated on the progress! It is much appreciated!!!

[Christopher Cprek]

UPDATE:

MSD is going to be continuing work throughout the evening to continue
clearing these lines. The said it will be ready either later tonight
or tomorrow morning. The landlord mentioned that I'm going to an event
tonight and will be talking to the mayor, which suddenly made this a
24x7 operation until it's done. They are excavating and rerunning new
drainage lines west to Shelby St.

There will still be some minor clean-up once the drain work is
complete. Though nothing too major... The area where the plumbing was
backing up has already been jackhammered and new concrete poured.
There will be some clean up from dust and construction debris.

MSD did discover a large 100 year old cistern underneath the
building... which could function as an underground lair. I suspect
it's been the centipede lair for quite some time. It's at the bottom
of the stairs to the basement, and the entryway is covered with
plywood. The landlord plans to fill this with sand and concrete
sometime next week. So even after plumbing is working, expect
construction crews in and out of the space over the next week. For the
time being, be careful around the plywood at the bottom of the stairs,
or you could end up in the 'sarlac pit' cistern filled with giant
centipedes.

Again, space is closed until MSD gives us the all-clear and we get a
chance to inspect / clean-up. Hopefully we'll be back on tomorrow at
the latest.

Chris

[Everseeker]

Perhaps, if the landlord is going on a 'fill the hole' bender, it would be good to show him the hole-under-slab deal in the server room... Fill/sealing that would be...
A good thing

[Christopher Cprek]

UPDATE:

I just stopped by the space to see how work is progressing and spoke
with the MSD crew chief.

They've dug out the drain pipe at the foot of the stairs. They were
waiting for some blades to arrive to cut open the pipe and remove more
sediment/debris/evil spirits. All the information before about
multiple drain lines was apparently incorrect speculation. We've got
the main drain line connecting from the two drains in the basement out
towards the alleyway where the sinkhole appeared. The excavation in
the alleyway went deeper than their excavators could dig, so by
cutting open our pipes and removing debris directly they hope to find
the connection to the yet to be discovered main drain. I left right as
the new blades arrived to cut open the pipe.

MSD said they are still on a normal workday schedule, and not
overtime. This is work is part of monthly allocated work for repairs
of this kind. They hope to have us draining before their day ends at
3pm. I'll be waiting for more updates from the landlord when we get to
that point.

Chris

[John Coder]

Thanks for the update Chris

On Saturday, June 23, 2012 10:47:14 AM UTC-4, Christopher wrote:

UPDATE:

I just stopped by the space to see how work is progressing and spoke
with the MSD crew chief.

They've dug out the drain pipe at the foot of the stairs. They were
waiting for some blades to arrive to cut open the pipe and remove more
sediment/debris/evil spirits. All the information before about
multiple drain lines was apparently incorrect speculation. We've got
the main drain line connecting from the two drains in the basement out
towards the alleyway where the sinkhole appeared. The excavation in
the alleyway went deeper than their excavators could dig, so by
cutting open our pipes and removing debris directly they hope to find
the connection to the yet to be discovered main drain. I left right as
the new blades arrived to cut open the pipe.

MSD said they are still on a normal workday schedule, and not
overtime. This is work is part of monthly allocated work for repairs
of this kind. They hope to have us draining before their day ends at
3pm. I'll be waiting for more updates from the landlord when we get to
that point.

Chris

[Christopher Cprek]

UPDATE:

The saga continues...

The good news: MSD finally found where all that concrete went to!

The bad news: It is in our sewer pipe leading back out to the main drain.

They are attempting to free it enough to get our plumbing going... but
now I'm hearing talk of running all new drainage lines for the
building and digging trenches all along the alley back to Logan or
Shelby St. It's promising that there are still MSD workers at
location past 3pm I suppose.

They still have yet to find where this drain is actually going. The
new information is that the back hoe operator ripped out the buried
drain rather violently. Ideally you dig around these pipes, so as to
determine their direction. But this was not the case.

Getting a straight answer on how long this will take has proven
impossible. The landlord is making arrangements for either use of the
neighboring facilities, or getting us some portable restrooms for the
interim. As soon as these arrangements are made, we can reopen the
space independent of the MSD work that will be continuing presumably
through next week.

As always, I'll provide updates as I receive them.

Chris

[Jonathan Clark]

Hey Chris, am I correct in thinking that msd is doing what they can but are just having problems completing the task? I ask because we deal with MSD and the water company on a daily basis and the main head of MSD is the father in law of our operations manager, so I have some direct contacts to some people that can make sure things are being handled correctly.  I haven't brought it up because I'd prefer not to reach out to these guys unless its really justified by someone at msd not handling something correctly, and so far I haven't got that impression but just wanted to let you know I can make phone calls if needed.

[Christopher Cprek]

Yeah, MSD is dedicated to resolving this but it's just hard to remove
concrete after it's poured. :-/

UPDATE:

MSD has located all the sewer system connection points they need to
locate and found all the concrete. Turns out the sewer tunnel was just
a couple of feet farther than they were able to dig. And that's where
all the concrete was.

There will be a meeting between the landlord and MSD at 9am Monday.
They've got a basic idea that they'll need to redo all the drainage
lines out to Logan St. and thus have to trench the whole alley.

Sometime after that meeting, we'll be getting one or more
port-a-potties to use while the work is going on. That will allow us
to open while MSD is redoing the buildings sewage line. So expect us
to be open on Monday. I will update everyone once I know this is a go.

Chris

[Jason Dodd]

Measure twice, poor once?

[Christopher Cprek]

Haha, more like don't pour ever.

Chris

[bruce]

ok.

so a pre-post mortum of this::

whenever getting involved with a new office space, ensure that the
sewage tunnels are well mapped out in case a sinkhole causes massive
dissruptions!!

talk about your murphy's law!!

[Everseeker]

So, will the front door be in use, or will we be hopping over open trenches and such?

[Raj]

Sigh.  Never doubt an engineer with decades of experience.  When you sent out word that they would be digging and the space would be closed, I asked my Dad, a civil engineer P.E. with 40+ years of experience, what was going on.  After a fascinating explanation of things like Karst topography, how sinkholes form, how virtrified clay pipes degrade, and what the thought was most likely going on (sounds like he was dead one, BTW), I asked him how long he thought LVL1 was going to be closed.  He gave me an estimate a lot longer than I expected, noting that they were most likely going to run a new sewer line in the alley.  I dismissed it, thinking that because of the expense they would just unclog the problem with ours.  Of course, from what you're describing, they're doing everything he predicted.  Never doubt an engineer who can quote OSHA code from a rough, second-hand description of work being doing on a problem you can't really explain.

On the bright side, he had a whole bunch of suggestions since work was being performed anyway.  I don't remember most of them but they included installing a "clean out" system in the alley and suggestions on the proper pipe thickness for PVC (schedule 80, i think?) we would need.  Since these are all things that the landlord is going to have to decide on, I'm sure my Dad would be happy to talk to him and answer any questions he had or to offer advice.  Chris, if the landlord would like this, just let me know.

---

From: Christopher Cprek <paxtitania@gmail.com>
To: lvl1@googlegroups.com

Sent: Sunday, June 24, 2012 2:25 PM

Subject: Re: {LVL1} Re: LVL1 temporarily closed until further notice