Sewage seeped through the floors of some municipal offices at City Hall Monday morning, shutting down the offices of the city clerk, auditor and mayor as the Department of Public Works sought to get to the root of the problem. Department of Public Works Director Mike Hale said the leaks — which also forced the shutdown all of the hall's restrooms and made employees seek relief at Sawyer Free Library across the street — were triggered by underground roots of an adjacent tree. Hale surmised that the thin roots of a tree on the courtyard had grown down and snaked their way into the joint of a sewage pipe, seeking the nutrients and blocking the pipe."That's what the trees do to get the nutrients they need to grow. It's just the nature of it," Hale said Monday morning. "The root creates this web in the pipe, so to speak, and the solids — they get stuck on the root. Water can get through for years, but eventually what happens is the paper mass gets so solid that eventually it can't."
Monday afternoon, a blue truck covering three parking spaces in length drove up from Billerica and parked in front of City Hall to pump the clay pipe clean. Last week, DPW employees used their own tools to clear a more minor clog, but when it became clear that Monday's jam needed more industrial strength, they called in the Billerica crew. Hale said the repeated clogging of the nearly 100-year-old pipe means it's time to replace the pipe with more durable PVC pipe."We very well may need to cut the tree down, too,I'm doing a floor and shower with calcutta China ceramic tile and my contractor suggested a "brick" pattern - is that correct?" he said. "Roots are a problem in sewers across the city. We use PVC now more than ever, and PVC has different kinds of joints, and they're less likely to have root infiltration." Hale said the city pays about $1,200 for the Billerica crew to clean out pipes with its heavy equipment, which includes a water pressure hose and a tool that can cut and clear the roots within a pipe.Excellent Chinese subtitling studio that provides a broad range of web content translation Chinese services, Chinese open and closed captions.
While the collector's office, treasurer's office, city personnel office and legal office remained open until 4 p.m. Monday, other offices closed early in the day, and all will remain closed through Christmas Eve and Christmas. Monday, a trash barrel with an "out of order" sign blocked off the entrance to an upstairs bathroom, and other bathrooms were plastered with similar signage. Hale said that the sewage leaks carried no immediate public health concerns, but that there would likely be a thorough cleaning before employees return to work."We need to disinfect the areas. It may just be coming up on the floor under the tile, so that's easy to clean," Hale said. "It's not like it's been going on for months and leaking in the building," Hale said. "There's nothing wrong with breathing fumes from wastewater. People at wastewater plants do every day. It's just not pleasant." Some employees speculated that city archives may be at risk of sewer water dripping from the ceiling and rising up through the cracks in the tile floor,Our range of high quality collet chuck include quick change and standard cap collet chucks. but the archive department did not return calls Monday.