Earth under RK Mutt Road gives way once again

While issues around two different CMWSSB pipelines on this road in R.K. Mutt Road are attributed to Michaung similar events had taken place before the cyclone.

Lightning never strikes in the same place. That saying is living on borrowed time. The plug should have been pulled on it long ago. Here is a recent (and even ongoing) illustration of why this deed should be done. Recurrent cave-ins road depressions on RK Mutt Road and St. Mary’s Road militate against this saying, proving misfortune does occur in the same place, sometimes in a distressingly similar fashion.

In the evening of December 21, CMWSSB workers were replacing a broken pipeline at the junction of RK Mutt Road and St Mary’s Road. Linked to the south Mylapore pumping station (located just a sniffing distance away on St. Mary’s Road), this pipeline had developed a fracture in the morning, having finally buckled under the weight of the workload it had carried during Michaung. According to a CMWSSB official familiar with the development, the pipeline had given way, having been subjected to a considerable degree of pumping on account of Michaung-related stormwaters. While the work was under way, vehicles had a constricted space to enter RK Mutt Road (this section of the road is a one-way).

This event followed on the heels of a cave-in in the same area — in fact, just a few paces away .

On December 19, a major cave-in happened on the one-way section of RK Mutt Road, due to a CMWSSB Pipeline shifting position. This pipeline is linked to the north Mylapore pumping station. This spot is not too far from the St. Mary’s Road-RK Mutt Road junction. The event had necessitated a major diversion.

The depressions

In the pages of The Hindu Downtown, we have listed patches on St. Mary’s Road (the one way section of it) and on RK Mutt Road (around Rani Annadurai Street) where the road sinks regularly and is fixed in a manner that leaves the root of the problem untouched. These recurrent depressions are of a minor nature, but it is necessary to get to the bottom of it. RK Mutt Road has experienced major cave-ins — for immediate recall, go to the RK Mutt-South Mada Street junction — and the response travels along predictable— one more Requickfix.

From time to time, a burst CMWSSB pipeline or a CMWSSB pipeline shifting position under the earth, is said to be causing the cave-in or the depression in the road.