City staff recommends extending warranty for 2022 street projects to February 2026

City of Wausau staff recommended and the public works body approved extending the contractor warranty for two 2022 street construction projects to February 2026.

During the meeting, Staff member (speaker 3) described concrete failures observed on Project A (Bugbee Avenue, Burrick Avenue, Campus Drive) and Project C (Tornoe Avenue). “So just prior to or the spring prior to the our 3 year warranty expiring, we go through all of our old projects and take a look at the infrastructure. And there was quite a bit of concrete failure on project a and project c from 2022, so we sent out our warranty letter this spring,” staff said. Staff added that the contractor — identified in the discussion as Samson and as 1 Excavating — requested an extension so it could perform repairs in the spring when crews are less backlogged and concrete curing conditions are better.

Staff recommended the city extend Samson’s warranty until February 2026. “So they think the added cure time will, provide a better product, which I don't disagree with. So I am in, I'm recommending that we do extend their warranty until February 2026,” Staff member said. Speaker 1 moved to approve the extension and Speaker 2 seconded; the body voted in favor.

The extension is procedural authorization for the contractor to perform warranty repairs in spring 2026 rather than forcing immediate work in late season; no additional budgetary amount or penalty change was specified in the discussion.

The record shows the decision was made by a motion and voice vote with affirmative responses recorded as “Aye.”