Design flaw requires movement of utilities for Jackson project

An apparent design flaw in the Highway 34-72 widening project will likely force the city and a gas company to move some of their utilities for a second time along North Colorado Street.

Missouri Department of Transportation project manager Eric Krapf wouldn't place blame on anyone for the mistake, but it appears that an error was made in not allowing enough room for underground retaining wall support.

Krapf said an electric pole, a water line and an Atmos Energy gas line will have to be moved again.

"We usually provide 6 feet of utility corridor," Krapf said. "But because there are so many utilities there in town, some had a hard time fitting in that 6-foot corridor. I don't want to point the finger at anybody because everybody out there has tried to do the right thing."

According to city officials, Jackson has done the right thing, at least according to the plans.

Public works director Rodney Bollinger, who is ultimately in charge of the water line, and electric utilities director Don Schuette both say their utilities were exactly where they were supposed to be.

"We did an enormous amount of planning and working with MoDOT," Bollinger said. "We had professional design plans drawn up, we submittted those for MoDOT to review, they approved it and issued permits to proceed."

Schuette said when he visited with a MoDOT official, he asked the official what the problem was.

"He told me, 'The problem is you put it exactly where we told you to put it,'" Schuette said.

In way of wallsThe utilities are in the way of planned "mechanically stabilized earth" walls. Those walls are supported by layers of horizontal tiles. If the contractor, Penzel Construction, were to build the retaining walls with the current plans, the tiles would go right through the utilities.

The cost of moving the utilites again is not yet determined.

Bollinger said MoDOT officials have been great to work with during this project and that he has no reason to believe MoDOT won't be fair when these utilities need to be moved.

But Bollinger said he believes Jackson has fulfilled its responsibility of moving the utilities by deadline as designed by MoDOT, so Jackson shouldn't have to pay for moving them again.

For the first phase of the Highway 34-72 project, Jackson spent roughly $870,000 to move the utilities. The roughly 200-foot section of Colorado Street was a small part of the overall project.

Krapf said contractors will have to come back and put in a crossing pipe across Highway 34 anyway, so that utility move should be relatively easy.

Things get a little more complicated when moving the electric utility pole.

Schuette said moving the utility pole will put it out of line with the other poles, creating a need for more guy wires.

"It'll have to be re-engineered," he said. "It forces us to get it stabilized. You just can't walk out there and put up a new pole, especially when it's out of line."

Schuette said that depending on how many feet the pole has to be moved back, more easement will have to be acquired.

"If the angle is too sharp, it's going to pass over the top of a structure and you can't do that," he said. "That's another problem and it could take a while to get that done."

Krapf said the issue shouldn't delay the construction of the project.

Phil Penzel, president of Penzel Construction, said crews can work around the problem for now. He said the first order of business is to prepare a bypass for traffic so work on a new bridge can begin.

"We've got a lot of it worked out and we're able to proceed," Penzel said. "I don't see delays happening right now. I think it'll be OK."

bmiller@semissourian.com

243-6635