The Maple Street reconstruction project in Plain City will not be finished by its projected date of completion of June 21. Weather delays and project obstacles have led contractors to request an extension. Village officials plan to review the request and have an answer by the end of this week.
(Journal-Tribune photo by Michael Williamson)
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Construction on Maple Street in Plain City is not going to make its projected date of completion.
Village Administrator Nathan Cahall said he heard from the contractor Monday with the official word that the project would not be finished by the initial date of June 21.
He added that although this is the case, the village is in talks with the contractor on how to get the project finished.
“We received their request for an extension in writing on Tuesday,” Cahall said. “There isn’t yet a projected completion date as it wasn’t included.”
Funding for the project came from appropriating funds from permissive, sewer capital and Ohio Public Works funds totaling $2,210,843.
By the end of this week, the contractors, Majors Construction out of Butler County, will have replaced the sanitary sewer system and put in new water and storm sewer lines, Cahall said.
The work left to do consists of finishing the roadway construction and paving, installing curb and gutter work and replacing sidewalks.
He added the delay could be attributed to a number of factors from poor weather through late winter and spring to project obstacles such as hitting water and gas lines.
“What we found on the project, with the age of the infrastructure, was there were unknown factors before construction began. For instance, there was a second sanitary line that wasn’t know at the time construction started,” Cahall said. “There were a few lines that were also thought to be inactive but that wasn’t the case. Some of these issues are what you expect with a project like this. We factor weather in but you just don’t know.”
The project also started much later than the village anticipated.
“We gave them the notice to proceed the first week of October with an expected start time of sometime near Thanksgiving,” Cahall said. “We didn’t see crews until way beyond that. I think they came in the third week of January.”
He said they told the village work on a previous project pushed the start time later than they planned.
He said some compromises were made to get the project moving including allowing the crews to close the entire street.
“The original plan was to break it into block chunks and do it bit by bit. But ultimately closing the entire street will get it done faster,” Cahall said.
The village plans to respond to the extension request by the end of the week.
“We were hoping to be at the stage we’re at now months ago,” he added. “The good news is, the difficult stuff like all the underground work is out of the way and what’s left should go pretty quickly.”