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Pedestrians weave around the closed sidewalk on Main Street Northampton Wednesday afternoon. -
Pedestrians weave around the closed sidewalk on Main Street Northampton Wednesday afternoon. -
VHB documented the conditions in the vault underneath the sidewalk at 58 Main St., and found severe steel corrosion that is compromising the sidewalk’s safety. The following picture was part of a conditions report sent to owner of the property, Eric Suher. The sidewalk is directly above the steel framing member.
NORTHAMPTON — Six weeks after the city closed a portion of a downtown sidewalk at the corner of Main and Pleasant streets due to “immediate risk of collapse,” the barricades and traffic drums that alert people to walk around the danger remain in place with no solution to fix the problem in sight.
In mid-June, the city closed the part of the sidewalk on Main Street primarily in front of Florence Bank after engineers discovered severely corroded steel framing below the sidewalk in what’s known as a vault. The discovery was made by consultants hired by the city to assess the conditions of the sidewalks in preparation for the upcoming Picture Main Street project, which seeks to expand downtown sidewalks and narrow the streets to one lane each direction.
The inspection process involved examining 17 vaults — the empty space between the sidewalk and the ground — under Main Street sidewalks. These vaults are privately-owned extensions of nearby building foundations, and are not city property.
The largest and most concerning vault stretches across 56-58 Main St. in front of the multistory building housing Florence Bank and the old Spoleto’s Restaurant. The building is owned by prominent property owner Eric Suher.
The city forwarded a copy of the report to Suher in mid-June warning him about haphazard conditions under the sidewalk, and advising him that as property owner he is responsible to have it repaired.
Suher has yet to respond to that correspondence. City officials said Thursday they intend to issue additional communication soon asking for an update and what Suher plans to do going forward, said Carolyn Misch, the city’s director of planning and sustainability.
Suher answered his phone Thursday and said, “we do not have any comment at this time.”
In its inspection of the vault in question, Kevin Martens of the consulting company VHB reported that one of the steel frames is “severely corroded.” The report also identified an active water leak, and notes that a 5-by-8-foot portion of the sidewalk has fallen off a slab and is resting on existing piping in the basement of the bank.
“We recommend that shoring be installed within the basement of the building to temporarily support the affected sidewalk the affected sidewalk areas until a permanent solution can be implemented,” states the report, which included photos of the shortcomings.
Misch was there the day VHB investigated the basement in person and Suher was also there, she said.
Of the 17 vaults on Main Street, “This is the only immediate concern,” she said, “because it’s so big, spans such a large area, and the structure coming from the basement is deteriorating.”
These vaults had formerly been voids that have now been filled in as sidewalks.
“Their functions ranged and depended on the building and how it was originally built,” said Misch.
Some of the 17 vaults had formerly been sunken stairwells, like those that remain outside Eileen Fischer and Turn it up! records downtown. Others were window well, or coal shoots.
While Misch did not have any definitive history of the vault outside the bank, “It is speculated that that might have been a place where people where people were dropping product down from the sidewalks — so you’d open a metal or trap door and drop fabric or whatever things,” she said.
Samuel Gelinas can be reached at sgelinas@gazettenet.com.
