Damaged Subterranean Pipe Worries Resident

Both residents and some town officers fear that a pipe used to reroute water could be structurally failing.

An Upper Southampton resident voiced concerns at a Tuesday Upper Southampton Board of Supervisors meeting that a recently filled ten inch sinkhole between her property could be a sign that a large subterranean pipe, built in the early 1970's, is structurally failing.

Dorris Woodrow, who has lived at her residence on Springfield Drive for almost 41 years, said the issue started just around seven years ago when she noticed a small, but growing, ditch between her and her right-side neighbors lawn.

The ditch, Woodrow says, the ditch sunk a couple of inches lower every year, causing damage to the sidewalk and curbing. By early 2011, the ditch was almost a foot deep.

“(the dirt) has to be going someplace … it's dangerous,” she said.

The likely source of the small sinkhole, Woodrow and town officials surmise, is an underground pipe used to reroute a tributary of the Southampton Creek underground, winding between homes and eventually leading to the other side of the street.

A private engineer contracted to waterproof Woodrow's basement said the likely cause of the sinkhole was damage to the structure of the pipe itself; Township Manager Joseph Golden agrees.

“The pipe is likely breaking apart. Water may be beginning to seep out – it needs to be fixed,” said Golden at Tuesday's supervisor meeting.

While the sinkhole itself was filled and seeded, Woodrow is worried that the old pipe below it could abruptly and catastrophically collapse, damaging both the street and potentially both her and her neighbor's property.

“I'm really afraid that one day it's just going to go,” she said.

The board of supervisors tentatively placed the potentially damaged pipe on the itinerary for a late-Winter, early Spring inspection and possible repair.