‘Holy Moley’: DPW going viral after pulling 100 feet of roots from pipe
By Alexis Crandall
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RUTLAND, Vermont (WPTZ) — When you think of viral videos, a local public works department probably is not the first thing that comes to mind. But that is exactly what has happened to the Rutland Department of Public Works.
The video showing crews removing more than 100 feet of roots from a pipe has racked up millions of views.
It started simply enough when the department responded to reports of flooding after a quick heavy rain in early September in a neighborhood off of Dorr Drive.
Its work to get to the root of the problem is now captured in a video seen around the world.
“I said, ‘Well, let me get my phone out just in case it works,'” said DPW Commissioner Bob Protivansky. “So, the rest is kind of history.”
He said he never expected the video posted to the department’s Facebook to go so far.
“I was just trying to highlight a big accomplishment from our crew to city residents. It was quite surprising what they found when they started pulling on that root.”
In the video, crews pull nearly 100 feet of willow roots from a sewage pipe — something Protivansky has never seen before on this scale.
“Maybe our sewer cleaning truck has found things like bike tires and weird stuff like that, but not roots. Usually, roots are dangling from the top of the pipe, down a little bit. We find those and deal with them before they grow 100 feet,” said Protivanksy.
He never expected so many people would see the video, which has now racked up millions of views on TikTok.
“I’m sure the people in the industry have been through a little bit of this before, but never to that scale. So they’re like, let’s look at what Rutland did. But mostly shocking to see.”
Protivansky praised the crew’s quick thinking that saved the city from having to dig up more pipes in the neighborhood.
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