An eyesore on a South Side street has been disrupting neighborhood life for months, and those affected don’t know when things will return to normal.
In late May, workers began digging into East 50th Street near South Champlain Avenue in the Grand Boulevard neighborhood to fix a damaged underground ComEd cable. The workers left behind a massive hole that has become a magnet for trash and has forced the rerouting of public vehicles like garbage trucks and street cleaners, according to people who live nearby.
Workers surrounded the hole with fencing last week, hours after Block Club Chicago posted an article about it, neighbors said. The fencing, which obstructs the residential street’s eastbound lane and the south side of the road, is about 24 feet long and 19 feet wide.
It was unclear how deep the hole was on Monday because it was covered with wood planks, but one neighbor estimated it was “well below” 6 feet deep.
The half of the road open to passing vehicles, the westbound lane, was partially covered with a steel plate, had smaller rectangular holes several inches deep and was congested with traffic cones and trash, including a Wingstop bag and an empty package of Grandma’s cookies, on Monday.
“When your lawn doesn’t look kept up, then people just start doing things,” said Angela Pestano, a neighbor whose residence has a direct view into the hole. “You see there’s trash — it looks like a place where you dump things, so people have been dumping things.”
The damage to the cable, which occurred during a construction project not associated with ComEd, wasn’t discovered until May. Neighbors believe the damage occurred in March 2023 when workers were installing a water line for a new residence on the block.
Lauren Huffman, a ComEd communications manager, said in a statement sent to the Tribune on Monday that the utility should finish construction on the hole about four to six weeks after ComEd receives permits from the city of Chicago to do the work. ComEd has begun the process of obtaining permits, but Huffman did not provide any kind of estimate regarding when ComEd expects to receive all needed permits.
Neighbors said they are worried the coming cooler weather would exacerbate problems caused by the hole and street closures, which were necessary when work was being done on the hole.
Parking in the area was already a challenge before the hole and street closures began reducing spots, Pestano said. Having no parking on parts of 50th Street creates longer walks for those who live on the block and for those who live on other streets when people who live on 50th Street take up their usual spots.
Neighbors are hoping the hole will be repaired before winter because they’ve already had enough of it, they said. Rodents have been emerging from the hole. Street closures have rerouted vehicles performing vital public services.
The open half of 50th Street, across from the main hole, had smaller rectangular holes, which could damage vehicles. Reinforcements around the hole have been marred with graffiti, and vandals have dragged construction materials away from the site, according to neighbors.
Before the fencing was put up, the hole attracted more trash than it does now. And before ComEd sent a letter to 4th Ward officials, neighbors were really concerned the street was contaminated with harmful materials, they said. Some are still concerned about the impacts of the spilled fluid.
The problems on 50th Street began back in the spring of 2023, when workers installing plumbing for a new residence on the street damaged a ComEd cable, according to Glenance Green, the president of the area’s block club.
This May, ComEd discovered the damage thanks to monitoring equipment, according to an August letter from ComEd to 4th Ward Ald. Lamont Robinson. Neighbors on the north side of the road are in 4th Ward, and those on the south side are constituents of Ald. Jeanette Taylor, 20th.
ComEd worked “quickly to clamp the cable pipe and stop the leak of dielectric fluid as well as to remove oil impacted soil immediately adjacent to the affected area,” the letter said.
Even though dielectric fluid is “non-hazardous” and isn’t a threat to public health and the environment, according to the letter, ComEd notified the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency about the leak. The agency visited the site of the hole and assessed it.
By the time the letter was sent on Aug. 22, the leak was repaired, but more work was needed to “remediate” the surrounding soil. The letter said ComEd was trying to obtain permits to complete the work on the hole. Huffman’s statement about the utility still being in the process of obtaining permits was sent to the Tribune 18 days after the letter was sent.
“ComEd understands the inconvenience of the construction within the roadway,” the letter to Robinson said.
Neighbors recounted periods of high construction activity around the hole and long stretches lacking such activity following the Sunday before Memorial Day, when a crew towed cars off 50th Street, shut down a section of the road and brought in tons of equipment.
In the beginning, workers dug day and night, setting up lights so they wouldn’t have to cease the operation, according to Pestano, a 52-year-old who has lived near where the hole is for about six years.
The around-the-clock activity tapered off after about three days, Pestano said, and after several more days, the work died down for more than a month.
Neighbors said they learned from the crew on-site that it was performing emergency work due to a leak in a cable. “It was a massive operation — nothing that you would typically see on a residential street,” one neighbor said.
The second phase of high construction activity occurred in late July, when workers did further digging and covered some areas of the road with steel plates. Following this phase, there wasn’t much activity until the article about the hole came out, neighbors said.
Throughout the whole ordeal, neighbors have stayed up to date about what was going on by talking with those working on the hole.
“We shouldn’t have to run outside to see what is going on on our block,” said Dee Hutchinson, one of many neighbors upset about the lack of communication from city officials and ComEd about the construction.
Green said neighbors began contacting Robinson’s office and ComEd immediately after the Memorial Day weekend operation began. After neighbors put pressure on Robinson’s office for months, the alderman agreed to meet with the neighbors alongside a ComEd representative.
The meeting is set for next Tuesday.
“Alderman Robinson and our staff have been in constant communication with ComEd and residents for months regarding this matter,” the alderman’s office said in a statement.
According to ComEd’s letter to Robinson, final repairs of the hole will likely require the closure of 50th Street from Champlain Avenue to South Langley Avenue.