More Wrong on 72nd St Than Just Water Lines Sewer Laterals Need Attention Now!

Mayor Dyster says there was no money to fix the water and sewer lines?

 

Something to keep in mind on 72nd St.

Take it from me – since I have put in water and sewer lines before when I built roads – that the City of Niagara Falls – which does not have a licensed engineer – which is now going to reopen 72nd Street to lower the waterline - should also remove the saddles in the 20 plus sanitary sewer laterals the contractor, Accadia Site Construction, installed to get the sanitary sewer laterals to pass under the new waterline.

The sanitary sewer laterals should have been re-laid when the city did the road reconstruction in 2010 to provide a constant pitch to the sewer main.

This was another item that was never provided for in the original contract documents.

But that’s what you get when your mayor - who you get to elect - chooses not to have an engineer to represent the city.

Besides the improper saddles on the sewer lines - a temporary and improper fix - the city actually - during the original road reconstruction - left two houses unconnected to the sewer main for almost sixteen months.

That meant that raw sewage was going from the two homes directly under the road.

When City Engineer Jeffrey Skurka was hired by the city he demanded that  Mayor Dyster fix all the sewer laterals and insisted that raw sewage which  was flowing under 72nd St be corrected or he would report it to the Health Department.

No wonder he was fired.

Dyster agreed to fix the tow homes that spilled raw sewage under the road but refused to fix the saddles on the other 20 homes.

Dyster reportedly said at the time the city didn't have the money to reopen the road and fix the whole problem.

There are good people who work in the city’s engineering department – albeit they are without an actual licensed engineer.

I will venture that if someone were to contact Howard Skivington in the Engineering Department he fully knows about the problem.

He did the construction inspection when the water main was installed on 72nd St and made an honest report of the problem.

The Dyster administration buried the problem – just like they failed to bury the water lines deep enough so they would not freeze and buried the report that Clark Patterson Lee completed in April 2014 – which clearly stated why the water lines froze - because they were too shallow - and by burying the water line report Dyster allowed the water lines to freeze again.

While Dyster has millions for Penguin habitat, Hard Rock Concerts, Holiday Markets, Community Mission bailouts, NACC handouts, Blues Festival subsidies, and $500,000 rehabs of abandoned firehouses for defunct programs and the purchase of a Highland Ave. property with no known use, he had no money to fix the road right the first time?

 Nor fix it when the outside consulting engineers pointed to the problem.

We understand why he fired Skurka - he was honest to a fault.

But that is water frozen under the bridge.

Since there is no city engineer, I will venture that the city must heed this warning: More than the water lines need to be redone.

The sewer laterals have to be done also.

Mark my words – or their will be a problem that will stink far more than frozen water pipes.

Here’s hoping the next mayor will hire a city engineer.