Once the tunnel is repaired, crews will work on installing pipes to contain the nearby Tannery Brook, hopefully preventing groundwater saturation that can shift soil and create new voids. Finally, contractors will probe the entire area around the tunnel looking for void spaces which will them be pumped full of grout. The entire project, if all goes according to plan, is expected to cost city taxpayers $1,630,000.
But, Swenson said, there remain several unknowns: the extent of the damage to the tunnel, the location of the breach in the sewer system and the location and size of voids outside the tunnel which will need to be filled.
At the press conference, Gallo said he would look to the tunnel’s architects, New York City, for help in fixing the problem. According to Gallo, the city could and should provide expert advice in repairing the problem. As for suing the New York City over the damage wrought by their century-old tunnel, Gallo simply said, “We’re not there yet. … We are trying to work this out in a good-faith manner.”
According to the article, “In the early 1990s the city installed a vertical SHAFT to carry stormwater runoff and improve drainage in Uptown Kingston”.
If stormwater from that shaft is reaching the “subsurface” which is above or within an aquifer, then that shaft needs to have an
“Underground Injection Control” permit. Failure to obtain one is a violation of the UIC regulations – the same regulations which govern hydraulic fracturing.
I don’t live in the state, but any resident, especially one who has a drinking water well in the proximity of the shaft can file a complaint with state/federal regulators