I suspect that NC State really cracked down on steam tunneling after the whole Chris Pritchard/D&D/Kill your parents thing.
My friends and I used to exploring our local storm tunnels. I guess they were 4’-4 1/2" in diameter. We did fun things like match fights - standing on opposite sides of a 90 degree bend, striking stick matches on the pipe walls and throwing them at each other in one motion. Or setting off a Molotov cocktail. Man, that made a lot of black smoke. Sometimes we’d explore the side pipes - small enough that you had to belly crawl. I remember almost getting stuck in one of those. In order to reverse course you had to flip over onto your back, then kind of sit up and bend at the waist and get your knees under you before you headed back. I got stuck with my shoulders against the “ceiling” and couldn’t move either way. I don’t remember how I extricated myself from that but I clearly remember the panic that was setting in. No more small pipes after that! Although these were storm drains, there was always some water running through them. I never could figure out where it was coming from. There were nothing but houses in the area. If our parents only knew what we were doing.
Combined sanitary sewer/storm drain systems are typically found in the Eastern portion of the US. When the cities were originally designed, the single system was adequate. With the explosion of development, especially following WW2 and the increase in need to further treat sewage, cities began to require separate systems for sewage and storm drains.
A series of heavy rainstorms can overwhelm a wastewater treatment plant, and the overflow usually ends up in a nearby stream, contaminating everything downriver. Not pleasant.
Since the storm drain effluent doesn’t need treatment, it typically will flow to the nearest body of water or stream. This can be a problem when folks dump used motor oil in the gutter, or paint thinner, or other noxious liquids. There are enough contaminants in the storm drains just from the road surfaces.
You’ll often find water in storm drains year-round. Wells are purged, people overwater their lawns, cars get washed in the driveway, and a big fire can require a lot of water to bring under control.
A candle flame won’t protect you from a poorly ventilated restricted space. The flame needs a HELLUVA lot less oxygen than you do. Be smart. Stay topside.
~VOW
draaaaiins.
Where in Dallas did you see those really large drains?
“Honey, let’s go to Paris and see the sewers!”
I am going to try that and see what the reaction is.
I hate to give exact locations as I feel it could come back to haunt me, but they all flow into the Trinity River eventually. Just look for small canals flowing into it, and then follow them upstream and see if they disappear underground. Most that I know are near downtown. Also, you can check out this site to see pictures of the ones I’ve been in and many more.
A 7yr bump!
Ive seen your other site before this page, and it’s badass to say the least.
Big fan,
Scott
If you’re referring to the site I linked in my previous post, it isn’t mine. It did give me hints on how to go about finding them and I happen to have explored a few of the same places. That guy has been doing it for years though and I only moved to Dallas last March. He even proposed to his wife in a tunnel.
I have e-mailed him and he did eventually respond though, so feel free to do the same to let him know how cool his site is.
Well that’s cool. Welcome to Dallas then.
I haven’t done any UrbEx for about 10 years…but I’ve been eager to go try to find some new places lately.
Feel free to PM or e-mail me specific inquiries. I’m just providing general information in this thread mainly to answer my original question in case others are interested, but I’d love to talk to others in the area and see what they’ve found.
Well, perhaps they are “very dirty” but some people are bothered by some things more than others. I, for one, am totally petrified by heights. I nearly got sick walking over the suspension bridge at the Royal Gorge in Colorado.
But I’m not sure that going into a sanitary sewer would bother me that much. In fact, I find the very idea of it somewhat fascinating and exciting. I almost entered a sewer one time in Phoenix, AZ but I was alone and got cold feet. I would never, never, NEVER recommend trying something like that alone. Unfortunately, it might be pretty tough to find someone who’d be willing to do it with you. 
Here are a couple of URLs to people who have actually done this. This first one has some nice pictures:
And here are some guys who, quite frankly, took some chances but they seem to come through it O.K.:
http://www.actionsquad.org/stahl.htm
Regards,
Fred M. Cain
This is a 13 y/o thread that hasn’t seen daylight (Ha!) in 6½ years. However, the Bridges part of your first link is amazing.
I know that you used to be able to take a Third Man tour in Vienna that went into the storm sewers. I haven’t been in years, but I bet they still offer it.
Yes, I don’t know what makes interesting threads like this one “go dormant”. (I only just found it a day or two ago.) I think Facebook has stolen some of the interest that used to be generated by forums.
But if there is anyone out that that has had experience in entering and exploring sanitary sewers, I’d love to hear it.
Regards,
Fred M. Cain
It’s important to understand that sewers aren’t just for “crap that goes down the drain” whether that’s in your house or in the street. In older cities with combined sanitary/storm sewers, what you have to remember is that these were built first as storm sewers and only later had toilets and other indoor plumbing plugged into them. The reason storm sewers came first was because they were for leveling out the terrain for building sites, draining swamps, and providing drainage for the new streets they were building. This required burying various creeks and springs and other small water features. I think New York City has thousands of creeks that are now in pipes underground. That’s why there’s always water flowing in them. This is also why some sewers can be quite large irrespective of the population served.
By and large, most threads here on the SDMB peter out after a few days, particularly ones like this one, in which the creator of the thread had posed a question, and other posters have answered it. Once that occurs, there often isn’t much more to add, though sometimes, a thread like that gets “resurrected” months or years later by someone who has actual new information to share
We do have threads that are exceptions to that: those that become energetic / heated debates, as well as threads that exist to provide a place for ongoing discussion of a broad topic (such as those dedicated to a current TV series), or for ongoing games – we have some of those that have been active for years, with thousands of posts.
More often than not, when we see a “zombie” thread here, it’s been raised from the dead by someone who stumbled across the thread via a Google search, creates an account here so that they can add their opinion to it, and who then never posts again. In a lot of those cases, it seems to be threads in which the original poster was asking for advice on a topic, and the person who revives the thread to offer advice appears to not realize that the thread is years old, and that the original poster hasn’t been active on the SDMB in years (and, in more than a few cases, is now deceased).
Yes, this is true. Although in recent years municipalities have been scrambling to separate sewer and storm water into two separate systems. This can make it more difficult if someone wanted to explore a sanitary sewer ‘cause the access to the system often ends up getting sealed off.
I have been in a few storm drains although never very far. Usually just where the drain passed underneath a large highway or something. Quite frankly, I don’t find that as intriguing as a real sanitary sewer with it labyrinthine side tunnels and water flowing in from all different directions.
Here is an interesting account written by a guy who went through a sanitary sewer system in order to access a mysterious and forgotten underground cave in downtown Minneapolis. The only possible way to reach the cave was through the sewer. Truly fascinating but I don’t think I would’ve wanted to try that. For one thing, the relatively fast current would’ve scared me off.
Here is a video of some people exploring a sewer. Don’t think it was just a “storm” sewer. No, this looks a lot like the real McCoy:
Regards,
Fred M. Cain
Kenobi,
Yes, your last paragraph describes me. I stumbled across a topic that interests me from Google. Perhaps I might start a new thread.
Regards,
Fred M. Cain