Hidden vault, big hassle in downtown Lewiston

A benign-looking hole covering an underground vault in a downtown Lewiston sidewalk has created an expensive headache for a property owner.

The issue surfaced when someone called the city in the second week of September about the roughly 1-square-foot hole in front of the vacant two-story Dill-Eichenberger Building at 515 Main St., said Lewiston Public Works Director Dustin Johnson.

When city crews inspected the site, it appeared that a metal plate that perhaps was covering a location where a light pole once stood had been displaced, possibly by a vehicle accidentally driving over the sidewalk, he said.

The city closed that section of the sidewalk after they found deterioration in wooden beams and brick in the 12- to 14-foot-deep vault underneath that section of the sidewalk, Johnson said.

The vault is about 40 feet long, the same length as the front of the Dill-Eichenberger Building, and about 15 feet wide, about the same width as the sidewalk, he said.

“It was not stable enough for us to just leave it over the winter or for any extended amount of time,” Johnson said. “There was no pending catastrophic event, but just looking at it not being watertight, seeing how it’s continuing to degrade, we just didn’t feel like it was a safe situation.”

During the last two weeks, city crews repositioned the water line and water meter that are in the vault, he said.

The city hired J. Russell Excavation and Concrete of Culdesac to fill in the vault, a job that took about 15 loads of concrete, then replaced sections of the sidewalk, Johnson said.

The cost of that work, $33,150, is being passed along to the property owner since sidewalks are the responsibility of adjoining property owners, he said.

The issue that emerged beneath the sidewalk at 515 Main St. is one that could happen again in another section of downtown, Johnson said.

Underground vaults were installed beneath Lewiston city sidewalks more than 100 years ago, he said.

The vaults served functions such as being places to deposit deliveries of coal or other materials, Johnson said.

Exactly how the one at 515 Main St. was used is not clear. The Dill-Eichenberger Building was constructed in 1903 for Ben and John Dill, brothers from Cork, Ireland, who were butchers, and Jacob Eichenberger, a cobbler from Switzerland, according to a historic marker on the building.

It housed a furniture store, hardware store, meat market and grocery store as well as a hotel in the upper floors.

“The building was raided several times during prohibition,” according to the historic marker. More recently, it was the location of Eng’s Restaurant.

Some of the vaults are vacant like the one at 515 Main St., while others have been closed for decades, Johnson said.

The city doesn’t have an exact tally of how many of the vaults still exist, he said.

Taking an inventory is difficult because they are underneath the ground and, while they are typically in public rights of way for streets, the access is generally through private buildings, Johnson said.

The potential for the vaults collapsing or for water leaking into them and damaging downtown buildings are reasons the city of Lewiston is exploring the possibility of a bond for improvements to downtown streets, he said.

The upgrade would happen at the same time as an update of the downtown water infrastructure in an approach that would get the work accomplished with less excavation than if the projects occurred separately, Johnson said.

Williams may be contacted at ewilliam@lmtribune.com or (208) 848-2261.