On my way to work a few weeks ago I realized that one of the usual streets on my route, Westfield, was under construction. My job is rooted in the construction industry (horizontal directional drilling), so I was acutely aware of the fact that multicolored paint on the road indicates that something is about to happen and it is likely going to involve digging. When construction began they opened the road and began to trench up Westfield in order to rebuild the sewer-line. I expected the job to cause some interference in traffic, as well as some dirty roads, but what I found in following weeks the job was appalling.
After they finished the digging, Canby Excavating was required to put temporary asphalt (cold patch) in the ditches in order to ease the impact on traffic before they paved.
The City of Silverton and many other municipalities have codes regarding the cleanliness of roads while they are under construction. Instead of a smooth bike ride I had to instead try in vain to dodge bits of gravel on my journey to work. The large amounts of gravel strewn about the street were an inconvenience, a hazard, and deteriorated the road surface.
It appeared that Canby Excavating perhaps pushed the gravel in with a backhoe and left the residuals, possibly out of laziness or without prompting from the inspector to do otherwise, before cold mixing.
I was willing to be patient considering that conceivably they would dig up the cold mix the following day. Instead, the road was left in complete and utter disrepair for over two weeks before they finally paved it.
Once they started to grind and pave Westfield Street, I was pleased to see the irritating gravel magically disappear into the ditch with the stroke of a broom.
Following the paving I was shocked that the city had decided to let Canby Excavating leave the manhole lids in their original positions. Anyone who as driven southbound next to the entrance of Dairy Queen can attest, the manhole lids were considerably below grade before they deplorably repaved the trench. What was once a moderate bump was now an organ-jarring experience that made your car’s suspension wish you’d taken an alternate route home.
Drawing on my own conclusions I have to say that there was a veritable lack of communication between the City of Silverton, the inspector and Canby Excavating.
C. E. should have undoubtedly taken better care to ensure the quality and cleanliness of their work site. But, inevitably the “buck stops” with the city or in this case the outside inspector they hired.
The inspector clearly did not do his job and unfortunately the buck did not stop with anyone.
My hope in writing this letter is to fix the manhole and paving issues on Westfield Street but furthermore make sure in future the City of Silverton or who it hires realize that the people of Silverton demand more for their hard-earned tax dollars than we received on this sewer rebuild project.
Ryan Lane
Silverton
