SAN DIEGO — An Oak Park neighborhood has been complaining about a water leak for years.
They asked our Working for You team for help, and the problem has been solved temporarily.
Videos from neighbors’ cellphones shows water seeping through Timothy Drive in Oak Park.
“Every time I drive down this street and I tell my kids be careful slow down, look for sinkholes because it’s going to go anytime, it’s a real fear because there is so much water under there leaking,” said resident Trish Olow.
CBS 8 saw there were several reports on the city’s Get It Done app over concerns about water being wasted.
“They paved it years ago, and since they paved it’s been a problem,” said neighbor Chris Toulouse.
When he saw CBS 8 poking around, Toulouse got his neighbor Dan Marty on the phone.
“It’s been a year. I have videos from July, August, December, March and April,” said Marty.
The runoff where algae grew pools directly in front of Marty’s home. He says the City is responsible for the erosion on and near his property.
“The driveway sunk in, look at the curb even the gutters all this soil erosion, it’s been a year,” said Marty.
Oak Park neighbors compare notes on all their Get It Done reports.
“Somebody from the City called me two hours later and asked is the water flowing and I said yes, it is noticeably flowing down the street. I was really encouraged. I thought wow they’re going to come right away and fix it and then they didn’t,” said Olow.
You can see on the road where the city marked the road for future work and neighbors shared videos of them trying to fix the leak over the last year.
“They do work above and it’s leaking again ten times worse,” said Marty.
Neighbors say a month ago, the City put up “No Parking” signs but never showed up. That’s when Olow contacted CBS 8 — we reached out to the City for a response.
On Monday crews responded and worked into the night.
“I am pretty sure it was News 8 calling the City to get this going,” said Olow.
Tuesday, a spokesperson from the Public Works Department emailed CBS 8 a statement:
"Following more than 40 hours of investigation over several weeks by City crews, last night around 7 p.m. a leak was identified at a gasket on an 8-inch pipe at 5459 Timothy Dr. To complete the repairs, water was temporarily shut off to 13 residences, two cases of bottled water were delivered to each residence and two water wagons were available on site. The repairs were completed and water service was restored at approximately 10:30 p.m. last night.
As part of the extensive investigation, crews conducted sound testing on services in the surrounding area, conducted potholing to investigate for ground water at four locations in the area and replaced several aging valves in the process. Due to the soil type at this location, tracing the source of the water was particularly challenging.
Due to the urgent nature of water leaks, sewer spills and pressure issues, residents are encouraged to call 619-515-3525 to report these issues."
Neighbors believe it was CBS 8 and assignment manager Mario Escovedo working for them.
“It felt good. Wow, Mario did something for us, I know it wasn't Get It Done because they weren’t coming after my third attempt,” said Olow.
The City says the pipe repair made on Monday is permanent, but the road repair is a temporary patch and has been referred to the City's Transportation Department to complete the permanent road repair, which will likely take place within 30 working days.
CBS 8 also found that the section of concern on Timothy Drive is part of the $15 million Oak Park Capital Improvement project. The city reports it will replace 11,000 linear feet of existing water pipelines. The City is currently looking to hire a design-builder so a timeline of construction is not known. However, they say similar projects have reached the construction phase in 12 to 18 months.
At CBS 8, we are always Working for You and our community. This is a station promise that we will go the extra mile to solve a problem our audience can’t solve themselves. We want to hear your ideas on how we can cover and help our community. If you have a story idea, please email us at workingforyou@cbs8.com.
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