Ongoing water main break turns Detroit-Shoreway street into ice, stranding cars

CLEVELAND — Detroit-Shoreway residents say they've been involuntarily living on waterfront properties since before New Year's Eve, with seemingly no road to resolution ahead.

I stopped by the intersection of Wakefield Avenue and West 71st Street on Monday, and consistently, water was gushing from underground for the roughly two hours I was there.

Ava Glessner lives nearby. She said she first noticed the water main break in January, but didn't realize what it was until later.

"My initial thought was that there might be a sinkhole on my street. I was a little scared. I was worried that there would be damage to my car or something," Glessner said.

Luckily, there was no damage to her car, but she's still concerned about what the main break could cause for others.

"My concern is that nobody knows about it. I've seen some orange cones come and go, but I just don't know if it's like even in progress," Glessner told me. "It's just another day of driving through the river to get to work."

While we were there, we noticed a few cars lining Wakefield Avenue that were frozen to the ground.

Thomas Doughty said his car was shackled to the street by ice about a month ago.

"The city was out here with a bulldozer after we complained for about two weeks. Once they got me out, I drove away, and the tire on my car actually popped because I was frozen to the ground," Doughty said. "I just got out of the shop today. I was there for about 2.5 hours. The city hasn't really done anything about it, and it's still a problem."

Doughty compared the water break to a "small Lake Erie," saying the ice-covered parts are unsafe and dangerous.

"I have a one-year-old and a three-year-old. Trying to jump the river to put them into the car has been really, really rough," Doughty told me. "They (City of Cleveland) need to take better care of their residents. We're trying to work and pay taxes, and I have to fight every day just to get out to go to work. Now we're trying to see if the city will compensate me for a brand new tire that I had to buy today. They're talking about we'll get paperwork next week, which I don't expect the reimbursement to be anything fast."

He said he's called the city seven times over the course of the last month in an effort to have the main break fixed, but feels like his complaints have fallen on deaf ears.

Traci Collier said she phoned the city about the water main break a week ago.

"I will say, about two weeks ago, there were about four trucks out here, and I thought they were fixing it, but this big thing chomped up all the ice, but it's still freezing again. It's been like this since before New Year's," Collier said.

During the time that this water main break has been an issue, she said she has seen a driver get stuck in the middle of it, forcing a tow truck to assist.

"The police came out. They called the tow truck to pull him out of there, and they pulled the bumper off as they pulled him out of there," she recalled.

Additionally, Collier said the gushing water is building a wall of ice at the end of her sidewalk and driveway, causing her to have to jump over hurdles to get to her car.

"The last Saturday of January it was. I tried to step over the water to get up, and I hit the ice wrong and just fell," Collier said. "I have an appointment with my orthopedic surgeon again. I did have a previous injury, but now it's fractured in two spots."

I reached out to the City of Cleveland on Monday for updates on the repair of this intersection.

I asked for the current number of water main breaks the City of Cleveland is working to repair, but the Division of Water said a public records request would need to be made to obtain that information.

With no concrete timeline for when the main break at Wakefield Avenue will be fixed, nearby residents are growing even more impatient.

"Just come and fix it for the elderly folks. There's lots of older people that live in the neighborhood," Jessica Welch told me.

Welch lives about two blocks from where the main break is located.

"We called about two weeks ago now as we were walking the dog, and they said that they had already known and that they will try to expedite the situation, but obviously, clearly, there's nothing being done at this point," Welch said.

Not only does Welch believe the area to be a hazard now, but she's also concerned about who may be footing the bill for the overflow of water.

"I wondered about their water bill. I'm like, is anybody gonna see this on the end of their bill? It's clean water, it's a waste. It's pretty frustrating that they can't come out and make it stop. Just dig a hole. I see you guys (City of Cleveland) digging holes unnecessarily on the freeway all the time. I understand how that works, but like just fix it, like turn it off. You can't disrupt people's water, but you can certainly try to dig this up real quick and just mitigate the problem so that it's not a hazard," Welch said.

Welch said she'll continue waiting on the city to resolve this issue, but she's almost reached a point of taking matters into her own hands and creating a plan of action for her neighbors.

I will continue to check back in with Cleveland's Division of Water for updates and Follow Through.