The Riverwalk temporarily lost in a game of hide-and-seek initiated last week by Batavia’s electrical company.
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An underground electrical vault containing the cables that supply electricity to the Government Center and nearby businesses was rediscovered under about 100 of bricks already in place on the unfinished Riverwalk along the Fox River peninsula.
“Nobody remembered it was there,” said Hank Vejvoda, the city’s electrical superintendent. “Through the years there’s been so much going on down there at the Riverwalk that it was forgotten about. “
Vejvoda said the company turned to its old maps to find the vault, which he believes was installed sometime in the early 1980s when the century-old limestone building next to the Riverwalk was renovated for the Government Center.
Riverwalk bricklayers never ran into it because the brick path only goes down about 18 inches, said Dennis Kintop, general contractor.
Cement will be poured around the vault and a manhole lid place on top.