Buckner workers uncover a relic of city's past

Buckner public works officials recently discovered a historic piece of the city’s past, buried beneath a city street.

City officials and residents had long been aware of an area near Washington and Central streets that collected and held water following a heavy rain or a series of rainstorms. When city crews tore out the road to look beneath the street to discover the root of the problem, they found what appeared to be handmade bricks shaped to form a channel to funnel water to a nearby storm sewer. However, the channel had deteriorated and no longer provided the necessary channeling affect, City Clerk Jerry Shrout said.

“I’d never seen anything like it,” Shrout said, adding that the system appeared to have been installed by hand.

To solve the problem of standing water, city crews installed 18 feet of plastic tubing inside the U-shaped brick channel, to cause water to flow to the nearby storm sewer rather than being pooled in the roadway, Shrout said. He suspects the U-shaped brick channel may date to the city’s founding during the 1800s. However, Shrout said he can’t be sure because the antique bricks contained no date or name of manufacturer.

“Now the water just shoots right through there,” Shrout told the aldermen at their meeting Thursday night. “It moves the water through real quickly.”

City crews tore out the street, worked at the site of the brick channel, which was about 20 inches below the road, installed the plastic piping and replaced the street. If community block grant money is available, the city may install a sidewalk near the site.

Shrout said the repair was part of a citywide effort.

“What we’re trying to do is fix problems when they come up, not just Band-Aid things.”