Demo of Lafayette Building causes giant sink hole on Lafayette...

[Gsgeorge]

Just stopped by the sinkhole. As it turns out, the basement of the Lafayette does NOT, reapeat NOT go under street level, and it was clearly visible that this was so when looking into the hole. One CoD engineer guessed it was a combination of the amount of water Adamo was using during demolition [[if you recall they were pumping it from right around here, and it was leaking and pooling up all over the place during the winter -- not good), plus the 50-year old old water mains that still exist under Lafayette not being able to handle the capacity. The retaining wall along Lafayette fell inwards into the demo area. So no sub-basements here, just shoddy demolition work plus shoddy outdated Detroit infrastructure...

They have actually already made a lot of progress on fixing the hole. Earthmovers have been pushing dirt into the hole, filling it and piling dirt along the retaining wall. Other machines are working quickly to remove the rest of the building materials that are still piled in the opposite corner. The road it blocked, traffic diverted, and another machine is removing the blacktop where the street has collapsed.

It was funny, I asked, "Who is paying for it"? Response: "Money is money. You'll pay for it, I'll pay for it, the city will pay for it, they [Adamo] will pay for it..."

NIce...