Crystal Lake Route 176 Sewage Line Not Working

Usually when sewers are installed, that’s the end of septic tank trucks going to an neighborhood.

But with the new Ryland Homes’ Bryn Mawr subdivision way out near Route 47 on Route 176, the septic tank trucks started coming after the sanitary sewers were installed.

Blame an uncooperative peat bog east of Mt. Tabor Cemetery.

Unfortunately, the problem was not found by soil borings and when contractor Gluth Brothers discovered it, the devised solution didn’t work.

They put the pipes on a “helical anchor system.” That’s a device that screws into the ground with a cradle the pipe sits on. The cradle just didn’t hold the pipe good enough to keep it on grade.

So 30 feet of peat won the day.

There is a small trench filled with water that my imagination thought might smell of sewage. But, I’m told the pipes have never carried sewage, so that’s not possible.

Ryland Homes has hired Neptune Construction to fix the problem. That will be accomplished by crossing Route 176 and laying 477 feet of new pipe on the south side of the road, thereby bypassing the peat bog.

Neptune started the job the Saturday before last and the hope is that it will be finished by the end of August.

In the meantime, homeowners have quite a deal.

They still pay for water.

The system isn’t looped, as it should be, but it is city water.

But Ryland is picking up the cost for sewage disposal.

Crystal Lake charges three cents a gallon for treating the sewage.

About six times a day a septic tank truck goes to the manhole near the entrance of the subdivision and pumps out the sewage and wastewater that cannot flow to the lift station on Briarwood. The defective pipeline is capped.

Then, it’s taken to Crystal Lake’s sewage treatment plant across from South High School.

At Thursday night’s park board meeting, one commissioner said he had heard that the total cost to the developer was $4,000 per day. If so, that’s quite a price.

This is not the first time peat bogs on 176 have bothered Crystal Lakers. It seems like decades ago, but there was a time when a fire started the one just west of Briarwood on fire.

Probably by someone burning leaves.

There was no way to put it out.

It burned all winter and into the next year until enough rain fell to put it out, I guess.

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On the top left, Ryland Homes’ directional sign is seen on Route 176 in Crystal Lake.

In the foreground in the photograph below is the manhole where sewage is pumped out six times a day. The subdivision can be seen in the background.

Standing water can be seen above the peat bog where the sewage treatment pipe to the Bryn Mawr development did not meet Crystal Lake city approval.

On the left below the water shot is the re-enforced trench that has been dug on the south side of Route 176 where the pipe will be re-routed for 477 feet. A lot of the pipe is in place just to the east of the intersection of Route 176 and Haligus Road, as shown in the next picture, but, as you can, see a bulldozer was putting the rest in place farther east along Route 176 when it was not busy loading dirt into dump trucks to take to the east side of the entrance to the Bryn Mawr subdivision.

As I was taking the pictures mid-day Friday, another brace was delivered. My guess is that Route 176 commuters will see some delays sometime this week.

Near the bottom of the article is Mt. Tabor Cemetery, which is located to the west of the peat bog north of Route 176. You can see Route 176 traffic in the background.

Next appears a Google satellite photo of the area where the problem occurred taken before any digging had been done. The arrow is at the intersection of Haligus Road and Route 176.

And, if you think the sewage treatment pipe had water problems, take a look at this corner at the southwest corner or Haligus Road and Route 176.

All photographs can be enlarged by clicking on them.


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