With the spring thaw, the alley is getting muddy and rutted.  Cutting into the alley to install gas lines doesn't help, the areas the gas was excavated and re-compacted has become soft. The neighbours like to call the city and complain, they are very good at this.  The city inspector came by and suggested that if the city has to fix the alley they would run up a bill in the region of $10-14,000 to 're-engineer' and compact the alley, bring in loaders and graders, etc.  

Ideally they'd blame me for this and send a bill.  I have no intention of being held responsible for this, nor is that cost reasonable to grade the alley and lay some gravel.  My case wasn't helped by some really bad judgement of the siding crew.  While the city crew was visiting the city the cube van was stuck in the mud in the back yard.  What sort of judgement is involved in parking on a muddy thawing yard in a huge rear wheel drive van. 'Was OK on saturday' was the response. You can't manage everything in this business, but we will be banning anyone from the rear yard from now until it dries out.