When my ConEd bill comes in the mail, I generally trust that their record of my electricity usage is on the mark. Besides that, they have no credibility, especially when it comes to why the steam pipe ruptured in East Midtown back in July. Their lawsuit against the city is the latest event that has angered the city and its residents for their shameful behavior of not taking care of our city's infrastructure.
From The Daily News:
The Con Edison steampipe that exploded under Lexington Ave. this summer had a deadly flaw - an incomplete weld that blew wide open when it was hit by pressurized water, a new report charges.
"The location of the approximately 5-foot-long rupture in the steampipe precisely coincides with a pre-existing crack-like flaw along the weld seam in the pipe wall," wrote Robert Caligiurr, an engineer studying the blast for two of its victims.
"The observed crack-like flaw appears to be old and is large enough that, in my opinion, Con Ed should have detected it prior to the rupture. Once detected, good and accepted practices would have required that this pipe section be immediately replaced."
The steel pipe, installed in 1924, exploded July 18 after water built up in the pipe and led to a dangerous condition called "water hammer," which slammed a slug of water into the wall of the pipe at incredible force.
This report was made possible by Kenneth Thompson, the lawyer that represents the victims of the blast. However, Con Edison immediately came back to say that there was no problem with the pipe, even though two months ago they claimed the pipe was impossible to inspect.
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