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Audit flags gaps in DPW street-progress reporting; council asks for fuller monthly updates
Summary
An audit released to the Worcester City Council found missing monthly DPW construction-progress reports and an online reporting system that omits smaller project categories; the council asked the manager and DPW to produce more inclusive, timely reports.
A city auditor’s review of Department of Public Works (DPW) construction-progress reporting found long gaps in monthly reporting and that the current online system omits smaller project types such as sidewalks, private-street conversions and certain drainage or guardrail work.
The auditor told the council that across a five-year window only a small number of the expected monthly progress reports appeared in the compiled record and that some citizen-petitioned street repairs remained on lists for many years without clear completion. The report also compared actual spending against the pavement-management program benchmark and found fiscal 2025 resurfacing outlays below the program’s recommended levels.
The auditor recommended restoring or augmenting monthly construction-activity reports, expanding the online system to include small-project categories and producing a live data feed of bills and payments to generate timely reports. The council’s public-works members and the auditor said many projects were delayed by utility holds and bidding schedules; the auditor recommended that district councilors receive lists of streets with utility holds when selections are made.
City Manager Eric Mann and DPW officials told councillors they plan to provide more regular construction-activity reports and that some delays in fiscal 2025 were expected to roll forward into 2026 work. Mann said the city is using pavement-management tools to prioritize preservation work and had proposed increased annual funding to improve the city’s pavement condition index.
Councilor Michael (District) King (requested item) and others asked for a public-works committee briefing and a plan for including small projects in the online dashboard. The council voted to refer the audit to the Public Works Committee and requested a report on how the city will expand reporting to be more inclusive of different project types and to make utility-hold status visible to district offices.
What happens next: DPW and the city manager’s office will prepare a response to the audit and a plan to restore or replace monthly construction-progress reporting; the audit and subsequent DPW responses will go to the Public Works Committee for follow-up.
