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Committee delays Bridge Street parking-lot repair decision after concerns about safety and costs
Summary
Contractor Doug Curry presented a revised design and staged testing plan after canopy columns failed; trustees said they were reassured on safety pending pull tests but asked for a consolidated spreadsheet of costs and insurance details, and voted to lay the item over for further financial review.
Doug Curry, the contractor who presented the reconstruction plan for the Bridge Street parking-lot canopy, told the committee the columns failed when originally erected last spring and described a redesigned fastening method intended to prevent a repeat.
"The columns failed nearly immediately," Curry said, and explained the redesigned base plates would use six epoxy-set anchor bolts per base (84 holes total across 14 bases) and a template to avoid embedded rebar. He said a third-party pull test would be performed after the epoxy cures to verify structural capacity.
Trustees pressed on safety and cost. One trustee said, "we have term non maleficence. It means do do no harm," and later added, "it terrifies me that if we had a kid under there or a car or something, with that cantilevered thing," saying safety was the top priority.
The presenter said the revised design reduces the top members’ weight by roughly 60 percent, lowers the structure a few inches and adds stiffening plates and larger bolts; some heavier pergola pieces already purchased by the village were judged too large for the revised design and are being stored by the fabricator. Curry told the committee the stored steel could be held for the village or scrapped with proceeds returned to the village, since the village purchased the material.
Staff explained the insurance arrangement would proceed in stages. The insurance company's partial release would fund initial work and testing; if pull tests fail, the insurer has agreed to cover expanded remedial work up to a full replacement to return the site to the contracted finish. "This is only the partial release at this point just to get the project started," a staff member said.
Trustees asked to see consolidated financials. One trustee moved to lay the matter over to the next meeting so staff could present a single spreadsheet showing the original contract amount, change orders, amounts paid to date, design costs, insurance proceeds and the remaining village balance. The committee approved the motion and asked staff to provide the detailed cost breakdown before the item returns to the village board.
Next steps: staff will assemble a consolidated spreadsheet of all project costs, the insurance settlement details and the proposed scope for the initial partial release. The revised design will be tested with third-party pull tests before any full release of insurance funds; if testing fails, the insurance agreement as presented covers larger remedial work up to full replacement of the affected elements.
