JACKSONVILLE, Fla. - As work to fill and repave the spot where a massive hole opened up on Beach Boulevard nears completion, an expert provides new insight into the vast infrastructure network just below the surface of many roads.
“There’s a reason they’re called our hidden infrastructure system,” Ruth Steiner, a professor of urban and regional planning at the University of Florida, said. “They’re out of sight and out of mind until there’s a problem.”
Steiner said the network of pipes carries everything people need in their homes; clean water, storm water, wastewater and natural gas. She described the underground network as being similar in design to the transportation networks people drive every day; think about highways that branch off into smaller streets.
The problem is that a small issue, like a leak, left unaddressed could amount to big problems at the surface.
“Initially it may be minor, just a little bit of movement, but over time you may actually undermine the stability of the soil underneath,” Steiner said.
While Steiner said she’s alarmed to hear about an incident like what happened on Beach Blvd., over all she calls the underground networks, and the trouble that could come with them, a fact of life. She said they’re necessary to get people the resources they need and aren’t a problem, until they are.
“I don’t worry about my plumbing in my house until the day I can’t flush the toilet or I take a shower and the water’s not leaving my house as it should be,” Steiner said. “Well then I need to take remedial action.”