Lewiston mayor reports major delays, cost disputes on sewer lift-station; fourth large water line break this year

The mayor told the Lewiston City Council the $[contracted] sewer lift-station project remains significantly behind schedule and over budget, with the contractor now 99 days past the scheduled completion date.

The mayor said city crews had to “babysit the pumps” and run 4-on/8-off shifts while contractors finished work. “The company that we contracted with to do it is now 99 days past their scheduled completion date,” the mayor said. The mayor said the project still lacked an electronic sensor required for substantial completion and that when the sensor is installed the city would be “about three weeks away from even substantial completion,” quoting a city staff estimate.

The mayor said the city has assessed financial charges against both its engineering firm and the construction contractor and that those assessments are being contested. “We have charged Anderson Construction an substantial slash enormous amount of money for not being at substantial completion 99 days ago, and that is not going well. They are contesting or withholding that money,” the mayor said. The mayor also said the city charged JUB a substantial amount for an error JUB made.

Separately, the mayor reported another major water main break at the IFA site that required an after-dark emergency response. The mayor said this was the fourth major water leak since her term began and that the break was caused when an outside bore struck the line. “We had written down on our plans that it's a 6 inch pipe. It ended up being an 8 inch pipe,” the mayor said. She described how a 4-inch boring tool went through both sides of the 8-inch pipe and released a large volume of water.

When asked who would pay for repairs, the mayor said she had asked whether the city could bill the party responsible and that she had been told no four times so far. She explained that many older water lines lack tracer wire or accurate records, which complicates locating them before excavation. “All of our new stuff has the tracer wire on top, and so we're accurate to inches… But these old lines that were put in before tracer wires… we're even wrong on the size of pipe that it is,” she said. The mayor said the city is requiring tracer wire on new installations going forward.

The mayor gave no timeline for final completion of the lift-station project beyond the staff estimate for substantial completion or for resolution of the billing disputes. Council members did not take any formal action during the meeting on the disputes or the water-line billing question.

The mayor said more updates will come as the city pursues completion and final punch-list work.