Photo by Loyd McIntosh
A sinkhole has started to form along the sidewalk next to Pizitz Drive near the Vestavia Hills Freshman Campus in Vestavia Hills, Alabama. This photo shows damage as of Monday, July 22, 2024.
The Vestavia Hills City Council on Monday took action to quickly move forward with a stormwater pipe repair to remedy a sinkhole that has started to form along a road near the Vestavia Hills Freshman Campus.
The project was planned in the fiscal 2024 budget, but “with the most recent rains, conditions changed dramatically in recent weeks, prompting this emergency declaration," City Manager Jeff Downes said.
The City Council approved $137,000 in emergency funds to repair two corrugated pipes beneath Pizitz Drive.
Vestavia Hills Mayor Ashley Curry said the corrosion of the pipes is causing an unsafe environment along the section of Pizitz Drive near the entrance to the freshman campus and a softball field.
“This is our life story it seems like in Vestavia. All the corrugated metal pipes that were put underground years ago are failing,” Curry said. “The subsurface conditions have worsened quicker than we thought they would and, therefore, it raises concerns for the integrity of the roadway, the sidewalk, the utilities that run along that roadway.”
Downes said the emergency money allocation would allow for the relining of the drainage pipes and the repair of the roadway and sidewalk caused by the deterioration of the pipes.
The city was scheduled to receive bids for the work in the upcoming weeks. However, with a sinkhole forming on the edge of the sidewalk, officials are concerned the sidewalk and roadway could become a danger to the community, especially to children due to the close proximity to the freshman campus, Downes said.
Photo courtesy of city of Vestav
A sinkhole has started to form along the sidewalk next to Pizitz Drive near the Vestavia Hills Freshman Campus in Vestavia Hills, Alabama. This photo shows damage as of Monday, July 22, 2024.
Councilwoman Kimberly Cook, attending the meeting remotely, said she is troubled by the project’s timing considering these corroded pipes were a known issue and the bid process should have taken place months ago with work beginning earlier in the summer.
“I’m a little concerned that we’re having to declare an emergency because it would seem to me that it would have been the natural thing to plan to do this during the summertime before school starts,” Cook said. "It just seems to me that maybe we should have put this a higher priority to get it through the bid process before school started."
Downes responded by stating the project’s unique nature and the size of the pipes required the city to engage a specialized engineering firm and that the bid process was on track before bad weather forced a new strategy.
"We were moving rapidly toward accomplishing that until these most recent rains, which expedited the need to try to get it done," Downes said.
Vestavia Hills Public Services Director Lori Beth Kearley said the repair project is scheduled to begin on Monday, July 29, and is expected to take two weeks to complete. She also said disruption in the area should be minimal and should be completed before the 2024-25 school year begins in early August. She also said public works crews have been doing their best to prevent further deterioration until the repair project begins.
“Because of the nature of the repair, we're not expecting traffic impact," Kearley said. "As we've been monitoring this and noticed with the recent rains that it has worsened, we want to make sure that we minimize the disruptions.
“Our public works crews have been going in and monitoring and filling in with stone to make sure that we keep it safe,” Kearley added. “We’re daily monitoring that to make sure that things do not worsen any quicker.”
The project was approved unanimously and awarded to Video Industrial Services, an environmental infrastructure maintenance and industrial cleaning company based in downtown Birmingham.
Photo courtesy of city of Vestav
These corrugated metal stormwater pipes under Pizitz Drive are deteriorating, causing a sinkhole to form along the sidewalk next to Pizitz Drive near the Vestavia Hills Freshman Campus.
The City Council also on Monday approved the purchase of two rifle-rated ballistic shields for the Vestavia Hills Police Department for $23,150. The purchase was made possible via a $15,000 donation from the Sunrise Rotary Club and an $8,150 donation from the Vestavia Hills Police Foundation.
"We say this all the time: ‘Things are different in Vestavia Hills,' and we preach this when we're recruiting new officers," police Chief Shane Ware said. "Things are different because of the support of our elected officials and the support of our civic groups, the Sunrise Rotary Club and the Police Foundation."
The City Council also approved a rezoning request for property at 3916 Waynely Drive in Cahaba Heights from an R-4 medium-density residential district to an O-1 office park district for the construction of an office building. Councilman Rusty Weaver said the property consists of two lots between the Pita Stop and the Sherwin-Williams paint store and received a unanimous recommendation from the Vestavia Hills Planning and Zoning Commission with the condition that the property is replotted into one lot.
Lastly, Downes told the council he will present a proposed fiscal 2025 budget during the next council meeting on Monday, Aug. 12.
