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Council presses engineer on water-main delays and defective pipe coating
Summary
At the Feb. 24 Richmond Heights City Council meeting, council members questioned an associate engineer about delays, safety at a closed intersection and pipe-coating defects; staff said materials can be returned to the supplier and the department is reviewing procurement and contractor reliability.
Richmond Heights — Council members pressed the city’s associate engineer on Feb. 24 about delays and material problems on a water-main project that has closed a neighborhood intersection.
The associate engineer said the project team expects to finish putting pipe in the ground around mid-May, but confirmed safety concerns at the work site after seeing people attempt to drive through the closure. “I actually came on that site, and I was like, this is not safe,” the associate engineer said.
Council members raised concerns that some pipes lacked an expected coating and asked whether the supplier or the contractor could be held accountable. The associate engineer said some material has been returned to the supplier for recoding and that the department is discussing longer-term supplier reliability and procurement changes.
The city official overseeing street projects described the suburban water-main renewal program and how Richmond Heights competes regionally for limited project slots; he said the city received county funding of up to $80,000 for materials on county road preventative-maintenance projects.
A council member urged that service providers affected by street closures — including the postal service and trash haulers — be included in planning to reduce disruption. The council did not take formal action on the project during the excerpted portion of the meeting; staff said they will continue coordinating with the planning department and suppliers.
Next steps: staff said they have a planning meeting Thursday and will continue to monitor materials and contractor performance.
