Storm-water runoff, mud cause problems on River Arts District hillside

What you see here are attempts by the North Carolina Department of Transportation to stabilize runoff from a broken pipe higher up the hill on the state rights-of- way. The pipe has long leaked, causing a gully to form down the slope, locally known as “kudzu hill,” and washing mud across the parking lot of the Phil Mechanic studios. Jolene Mechanic (who was not available for comment this weekend) has called many times about the mess, and various bandaids were applied with various results.

“The rain events of the last week broke it,” says Pattiy Torno, a RAD resident. “The water gushed across the circle with the mud, traffic was snarled.” DOT came and put up the fence, rocks and straw bales. The circle was cleaned up.

Then it rained hard early Saturday morning.

“It looks like the pipe’s supports have come loose from whatever they had been on,” said Torno. “As you can see, there is a lot of mud down to the top of the rocks.”

A call to the state DOT has not yet been answered.

With more rain in the forecast, residents and tenants in the area are keeping a close eye on the pile of wet mud and rocks.

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8 thoughts on “Storm-water runoff, mud cause problems on River Arts District hillside

    • ChristopherCNC

      Yes we all know Socialsits can’t stop pipes from leaking in the rain.

      Speaking of leaking pipes, my first thought before Tem Pick distracted me was why are they wasting all that effort with rocks, landscape fabric and straw when they could just be fixing the pipe? That pile of rocks ain’t cheap.

  1. bsummers

    There may be a dispute over who is responsible for fixing the pipe – this is state land, apparently, but the state doesn’t own City of Asheville water pipes (yet). Maybe the state or a private entity damaged the pipe, and the City is trying to get them to pay for it.

    The again, it could be that the whoever is responsible for the pipe (probably the City), is trying to fix it, but you can’t just ‘fix’ one pipe in some of these ancient water mains. You pull one section out, and you wind up having to replace a half mile of pipe.

    And the budget for maintenance is pretty tight, given the age of the system, the screaming-like-a-stuck-pig that ensues when Council talks about raising water rates, and the fact that by law, the City is subsidizing cheap water to the County.

    • ChristopherCNC

      Not to dispute that there may be a dispute over who should fix the pipe, but this isn’t a water pipe or a sewer pipe. If it was it would be leaking non stop. It is a storm drain pipe it seems to me. It only leaks when it rains. Now it floods.

      It would not surprise me in the least if they make couplings for pipe like that. At the least there is new sleeve technology where they just slide a new pipe inside the old one. There is an entrance and exit hole some where close by.

  2. Bill Rhodes

    It is a DOT responsibility. It is not a water pipe, it is a storm drain from a road (Park Avenue) which DOT cut to make Glingman Avenue go through when they built the bridge.
    There is no dispute. The City is supporting NC DOT in any way they can.
    A DOT representative says this pipe is at the end of its service life, being 50+ years old.

    • Franklin

      Hey Bill – It’s time you went back to Park Ave to see what DOT did to ‘fix’ the problem.

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