Grove Street Flood Caused by Capped Drainage Pipe

Borough officials may be keeping their eyes on the skies today with a forecast that includes the possibility of heavy rain.

A deluge on Friday, July 8 flooded the intersection of Grove Street and Park Boulevard. A storm-water drainage pipe that was capped by a borough contractor caused the flood.

Borough Administrator Sharon McCollough said the contractor capped the pipe because a Camden County inspector told the borough the pipe was a "dead" line. Turns out, the line was an active state storm-water drainage pipe and the heavy rain on July 8 gushed into the intersection through a newly installed manhole. The borough contractor cut and capped the drainage line while installing the manhole in early spring. The rainfall since then had not been heavy enough to expose the problem, McCollough said.

McCollough said Monday state officials were on the scene last week for emergency repairs and the problem should not recur before the line is permanently fixed.

Camden County spokesperson Joyce Gabriel said the county was looking into the incident and has asked the borough for documentation from the county inspector who gave the go ahead. During a borough Board of Commissioners' meeting last week McCollough said the county inspector who approved the action may have since retired. Gabriel said Monday "this was the first we're heard of this."

“It was their error,” Mayor Tish Colombi said of the county. “They’ll have to fix it.”

McCollough said if the borough contractor knew the line was still active he could have moved the manhole to a location that would not have required cutting and capping the drainpipe.

There are no estimates yet on the cost of the repair.