Residents of portions of southwest Marysville are breathing a sigh of relief with completion recently of street work in their area. Since May of 2017, parts of West Sixth, Seventh, Eighth and Ninth streets, Court Street and Milford Avenue have been part of a sewer repair and resulting repaving project that caused much inconvenience for those living and doing business in the area.
It began last May as a normal sewer line repair and upgrade, but quickly took on an ugly twist when the original construction company was fired by the city because of serious problems with the quality of work. Streets were torn up, traffic was disrupted, and dust and dirt were an ongoing headache not only for those residing there but also for those driving through. Houses and cars parked outside had to be washed constantly to clean off the debris, and when it rained the area was a muddy mess.
Thankfully, a backup company was willing to step in and sign a contract to complete the job properly. However, it didn’t have time to finish everything before winter set in. Consequently, the streets had to be patched and left in as good a condition as possible until this summer when they could be repaved. It was not a desirable situation.
After nearly 16 months, the job was finally completed a few weeks ago and the striping added just this week. The nightmare is over. The result is a pleasant one – nice looking and smooth streets to drive over.
This saga underscores the fact that it’s sometimes difficult to know in advance whether or not a company does quality work. But in this situation, the city acted quickly and was able to limit the agony and inconvenience to residents. The culprit company that was dismissed paid a hefty fine that actually provided a silver lining for the city in the form of a reduced price tag for the project.