What to do when the city ruins your sidewalk?
OhioGuy
truck because garbage is fruit and vegetable waste, and we compost ours, but
we do put trash out) Sometime during the day, it appears that a very, very
heavy and large truck drove up onto our sidewalk where the front sidewalk
becomes the side sidewalk.
So basically, they missed the turn and drove up onto our yard. The weight
of the truck pushed a section of the sidewalk that is about 7 feet long
sideways about 4 inches, and one end is now up in the air about 5 inches. I
am unable to move it by hand.
Here's the thing - it is almost too late in the year to do cement work at
this point, with it getting down to about freezing every night. I'm already
involved in several projects around the house, and don't have the time or
energy to mess with this right now. This is our private sidewalk next to
the house - runs about 4 or 5 feet from the edge of our house. It is not
the sidewalk that the city put in out next to the road. This whole
situation was made worse about 2 years ago when the city went around making
all of the sidewalk alley crossing handicapped accessible. They widened the
crossing, and took out about 2 feet worth of soil that was next to our
sidewalk. Afterwards, we kept having people brush against the edge of our
sidewalk, or even go up on our yard if they missed the turn. It is very
worrisome, considering how close all of this is to the edge of our house.
Anyway, we don't have any proof that the city did this, but I'm pretty
sure they did, because Thursday is the day they go around collecting trash.
It would take an extremely heavy truck to do this sort of thing.
We just used up all of our spare cash signing on to have our gutters
replaced, and now this.
How should we proceed? I really doubt that the city would volunteer to
pay for the repairs if I call them and send them the pictures I took.
However, now I have a liability that needs addressed. The mailman walks
through there every day, and if he or someone else slips on that, it could
be a real problem. I would estimate that it would cost $800 to $1,400 to
have the section removed and a new one poured thick enough to resist further
problems like this.
OhioGuy
Chloe
Life isn't fair. Owning a home costs money. Fix the sidewalk. You could
check into getting some of those sharp spikes to protect it in the future,
but I think there may be liability issues with those, too.
Rick
>
> Yesterday was the day when the trash truck came. (I call it the trash
> truck because garbage is fruit and vegetable waste, and we compost ours, but
> we do put trash out) Sometime during the day, it appears that a very, very
> heavy and large truck drove up onto our sidewalk where the front sidewalk
> becomes the side sidewalk.
>
> So basically, they missed the turn and drove up onto our yard. The weight
> of the truck pushed a section of the sidewalk that is about 7 feet long
> sideways about 4 inches, and one end is now up in the air about 5 inches. I
> am unable to move it by hand.
>
>
> Anyway, we don't have any proof that the city did this, but I'm pretty
> sure they did, because Thursday is the day they go around collecting trash.
> It would take an extremely heavy truck to do this sort of thing.
>
And therein lies your problem. You have no proof - only an allegation.
You can't win on that. You can't id the type of truck it was, let alone
provide a license number. It could have been a trash truck. It also
could have been a moving van, a different public works vehicle, a
delivery truck, a construction vehicle, a bus...
You do have homeowner's insurance, don't you? I'd be calling by now to
find out if this is covered.
SpammersDie
"Rick" <rick...@rcn.com> wrote in message news:4734E402...@rcn.com...
The insurance thing occurred to me but $800-$1400 is an awfully small claim
to get a CLUE rap for - it'd probably be cheaper to pay out of pocket than
absorb the premium hikes.
And if you call, you'll probably get the premium hikes whether or not it's
even claimable. I'd save the insurance for the catastrophic losses.
Gary Heston
> Yesterday was the day when the trash truck came. (I call it the trash
>truck because garbage is fruit and vegetable waste, and we compost ours, but
>we do put trash out) Sometime during the day, it appears that a very, very
>heavy and large truck drove up onto our sidewalk where the front sidewalk
>becomes the side sidewalk.
> So basically, they missed the turn and drove up onto our yard. The weight
>of the truck pushed a section of the sidewalk that is about 7 feet long
>sideways about 4 inches, and one end is now up in the air about 5 inches. I
>am unable to move it by hand.
[ ... ]
Have you filed a police report regarding the vandalism to your property?
You should do so. If it can be characterized as a motor vehicle accident,
then the perpetrators can be prosecuted for leaving the scene--which is
usually a felony.
Also, check with your neighbors--one of them may have seen the truck in
your yard. If there are any tracks, do plaster casts of them as further
documentation.
You might see if a tow truck can pull the section back into position.
If they can, it'll be cheaper than breaking out the original sidewalk
and having a new one poured.
Gary
--
Gary Heston ghe...@hiwaay.net http://www.thebreastcancersite.com/
Yoko Onos' former driver tried to extort $2M from her, threating to
"release embarassing recordings...". What, he has a copy of her album?
Rod Speed
> In article <fh246c$rqh$2...@aioe.org>, OhioGuy <no...@none.net> wrote:
>> Yesterday was the day when the trash truck came. (I call it the
>> trash truck because garbage is fruit and vegetable waste, and we
>> compost ours, but we do put trash out) Sometime during the day, it
>> appears that a very, very heavy and large truck drove up onto our
>> sidewalk where the front sidewalk becomes the side sidewalk.
>
>> So basically, they missed the turn and drove up onto our yard. The
>> weight of the truck pushed a section of the sidewalk that is about 7
>> feet long sideways about 4 inches, and one end is now up in the air
>> about 5 inches. I am unable to move it by hand.
> Have you filed a police report regarding the vandalism to
> your property? You should do so. If it can be characterized
> as a motor vehicle accident, then the perpetrators can be
> prosecuted for leaving the scene--which is usually a felony.
Not if they didnt notice that that happened.
And the cops cant do anything about it with no ID of the vehicle involved anyway.
> Also, check with your neighbors--one of them may have
> seen the truck in your yard. If there are any tracks, do
> plaster casts of them as further documentation.
No point in doing that unless the vehicle can be identified.
> You might see if a tow truck can pull the section back into position.
Unlikely, nothing to get a grip on.
Might be feasible to jack it back to where it came from.
Don K
> garbage is fruit and vegetable waste, and we compost ours, but we do put trash out)
> Sometime during the day, it appears that a very, very heavy and large truck drove up
> onto our sidewalk where the front sidewalk becomes the side sidewalk.
>
> So basically, they missed the turn and drove up onto our yard. The weight of the truck
> pushed a section of the sidewalk that is about 7 feet long sideways about 4 inches, and
> one end is now up in the air about 5 inches. I am unable to move it by hand.
> How should we proceed? I really doubt that the city would volunteer to pay for the
> repairs if I call them and send them the pictures I took. However, now I have a
> liability that needs addressed. The mailman walks through there every day, and if he or
> someone else slips on that, it could be a real problem. I would estimate that it would
> cost $800 to $1,400 to have the section removed and a new one poured thick enough to
> resist further problems like this.
I'd contact them anyway and give it a try. Do it all by mail or email so
there is a written record. Tell them your sidewalk got damaged on pickup
day when one of the garbage trucks apparently made a wide turn and
now the sidewalk is a hazardous. You might have to work thru a couple
layers of bureaucracy before you find anyone with authority to authorize anything.
I went thru a similar exercise this spring when a asphalt ramp to my driveway
was removed when the county repaved the road. I went from the foreman of the
work crew, then to the county road dept, the road inspector, his supervisor,
and finally to the head of County Roads. Initially everyone kept saying that
they don't allow ramps on county roads. I said, fine then raise the road instead
if they'd rather. When I got the head road guy to come out and look at it, he
said that it was the worst driveway access he'd seen. Two weeks later he
sent out work crews with jackhammers, several trucks, a roller, a concrete
mixer truck, an asphalt truck, and they recontoured the road and raised
its level. It must have cost a few thousand bucks. :-)
Don
Anthony Matonak
...
> Life isn't fair. Owning a home costs money. Fix the sidewalk. You could
> check into getting some of those sharp spikes to protect it in the future,
> but I think there may be liability issues with those, too.
You don't put up sharp spikes. You put up lamp posts, decorative
concrete, small boulders, trees... stuff like that. Anything that
a truck won't be able to drive over but doesn't look like it'll
kill stray pedestrians.
Anthony
Logan Shaw
> OhioGuy wrote:
>> So basically, they missed the turn and drove up onto our yard.
> And therein lies your problem. You have no proof - only an allegation.
> You can't win on that. You can't id the type of truck it was, let alone
> provide a license number. It could have been a trash truck. It also
> could have been a moving van, a different public works vehicle, a
> delivery truck, a construction vehicle, a bus...
What are you talking about? Of course they can win! I see this kind
of thing on Court TV all the time, on "Forensic Files". They have
people who are experts on tire tracks and can tell which tires left
a tread mark, people who are experts on plants and can tell if leaves
from a rare plant species got stuck on the vehicle, and all kinds of
crazy stuff like that.
Of course, I doubt it's worth hiring the FBI crime lab or similar to
crack this case wide open, but apparently it *can* be done. ;-)
- Logan
hchi...@hotmail.com
wrote:
>In article <fh246c$rqh$2...@aioe.org>, OhioGuy <no...@none.net> wrote:
>> Yesterday was the day when the trash truck came. (I call it the trash
>>truck because garbage is fruit and vegetable waste, and we compost ours, but
>>we do put trash out) Sometime during the day, it appears that a very, very
>>heavy and large truck drove up onto our sidewalk where the front sidewalk
>>becomes the side sidewalk.
>
>> So basically, they missed the turn and drove up onto our yard. The weight
>>of the truck pushed a section of the sidewalk that is about 7 feet long
>>sideways about 4 inches, and one end is now up in the air about 5 inches. I
>>am unable to move it by hand.
> [ ... ]
>
>Have you filed a police report regarding the vandalism to your property?
>You should do so. If it can be characterized as a motor vehicle accident,
>then the perpetrators can be prosecuted for leaving the scene--which is
>usually a felony.
>
>Also, check with your neighbors--one of them may have seen the truck in
>your yard. If there are any tracks, do plaster casts of them as further
>documentation.
>
>You might see if a tow truck can pull the section back into position.
>If they can, it'll be cheaper than breaking out the original sidewalk
>and having a new one poured.
>
>
>Gary
Hmmm, could have been some other truck that did the damage. I'm
trying to visualize the forces involved. I couldn't do that with a
backhoe, which has a large weight per wheel and a lot of torque. I
agree with filing a police report.
A couple of bottle jacks and an afternoon of labor might reset the
concrete. Making the soil underneath the concrete wet could encourage
things to settle.
When doing spike strips for wayward vehicles, drive the spikes through
a 2x4 and the cover the exposed spike ends with foam insulation so
that no spike end is exposed. Bury the strip in the affected area.
When a vehicle passes over, the weight will crush the foam and allow
the spike to penetrate (remember that truck tires are very thick).
Whan a person walks over it, nothing will happen. I've never done
this and take no responsibility for your taking my joke literally.
(And now that green slime seems ubiquitous, strip metal might work
better.)
Gary Heston
<hchi...@hotmail.com> wrote:
>On Sat, 10 Nov 2007 01:56:29 -0000, ghe...@hiwaay.net (Gary Heston)
>wrote:
>>Have you filed a police report regarding the vandalism to your property?
>>You should do so. If it can be characterized as a motor vehicle accident,
>>then the perpetrators can be prosecuted for leaving the scene--which is
>>usually a felony.
>>Also, check with your neighbors--one of them may have seen the truck in
>>your yard. If there are any tracks, do plaster casts of them as further
>>documentation.
>>You might see if a tow truck can pull the section back into position.
>>If they can, it'll be cheaper than breaking out the original sidewalk
>>and having a new one poured.
Hey, he still remembers how to post!
>Hmmm, could have been some other truck that did the damage. I'm
>trying to visualize the forces involved. I couldn't do that with a
>backhoe, which has a large weight per wheel and a lot of torque. I
>agree with filing a police report.
It would help tp know if the neighbors saw anything. Heavy trucks in
a residential neighborhood usually attract attention.
>A couple of bottle jacks and an afternoon of labor might reset the
>concrete. Making the soil underneath the concrete wet could encourage
>things to settle.
>When doing spike strips for wayward vehicles, drive the spikes through
>a 2x4 and the cover the exposed spike ends with foam insulation so
>that no spike end is exposed. Bury the strip in the affected area.
>When a vehicle passes over, the weight will crush the foam and allow
>the spike to penetrate (remember that truck tires are very thick).
>Whan a person walks over it, nothing will happen. I've never done
>this and take no responsibility for your taking my joke literally.
>(And now that green slime seems ubiquitous, strip metal might work
>better.)
One "fence" described to me consisted of 4" stainless pipe 10' long
set 6' into the ground, with 1/2" aircraft cable strung between the
posts. Reportedly was effective at stopping cars from sliding into
a yard.
Dennis
>Life isn't fair.
Actually life is fair, but what most people miss is that sometimes
fair sucks. ;-)
Dennis (evil)
--
I'm a hands-on, footloose, knee-jerk head case. -George Carlin
hchi...@hotmail.com
>>>You might see if a tow truck can pull the section back into position.
>>>If they can, it'll be cheaper than breaking out the original sidewalk
>>>and having a new one poured.
>
>Hey, he still remembers how to post!
Yep!
Another alternative might be putting in a super deck, like Mr. Heston
just supervised construction on for me. :-) Thank-you, sir.
Gary Heston
>Yep!
The deck you designed might be a bit thick for use as a sidewalk
alternative; sidewalks are usually about 6" thick, your deck structure
is about 11". Of course, that might be a good way to conceal tire spikes.
Glad to help!