Phone lines cause Broadway delay

City officials say they are at "wit's end" over a Broadway street resurfacing job that should have taken only three weeks but instead has taken most of the summer.

Private contractors, however, say the city should have known about buried utility lines, which are to blame for the delay. At issue is a 900-foot section of Broadway near the entrance of Southeast Missouri State University.

Due to the discovery of an AT&T phone line and various shortcomings on the part of contractors and subcontractors, the city engineer's office said, the project will not be finished until Sept. 4. It began June 28.

"We're almost at our wit's end with this one," said city engineer Jay Stencel.

The $130,000 project is just one component of the city's summer resurfacing program. Contractors are widening Broadway by 2 feet, replacing sidewalks, curbs and gutters, and overlaying asphalt.

On July 17, contractors discovered an AT&T phone duct on the northwest side of the street and consulted with the phone company. AT&T took until Aug. 15 to relocate the duct, but during that time the subcontractor did no work on the street.

"Realistically they could have completed three-quarters of the work during that time," Stencel said.

Just who the "they" is, is another frustrating question for city hall. The general contractor on the entire overlay project is ASA Asphalt of Cape Girardeau, but ASA subcontracted the Broadway project to Lappe Cement of Perryville, Mo. Lappe began the project in June, but after the phone conflict was discovered, it in turn subcontracted out to Wibbenmeyer Concrete, also of Perryville.

Stencel said a contractor should contact city officials before subbing out work. But because all of the work is under the umbrella of the city overlay project, which has a completion date in October, the city has no control over individual parts of the project.

"We don't have the ability to threaten liquidated damages," he said.

Stencel said that while this project has languished, overlays on eight other streets have been completed on schedule. He stressed that the general contractor, ASA, is ultimately responsible for seeing the project gets done in a timely fashion.

"I bet I call the contractor five times per day trying to get them out there," Stencel said Friday about the work on Broadway. "Let me put it this way: They finally showed up to work yesterday."

Wibbenmeyer Concrete was out working Friday and said the fault for the delay rests squarely with the city.

"This job would have been completed already if it was up to me," said project manager Matt Wibbenmeyer. "The only reason this job isn't done is we were waiting on the [AT&T] guys and everybody else. If I'd been allowed to work, this job would be done."

Wibbenmeyer added that in past projects he was always notified by city officials where utilities or phone lines were buried.

None of the finger-pointing means much to business owners like Autumn Demopoulos of California Juice Club at 1034 Broadway.

"I had orange fencing in front of my front door for a week, and at the moment I still have gravel in front of my front door," she said. "They've left a three-foot space to get in the front door and customers are complaining, so that's why I want to know what's going on. It affects my business and I get answers like 'It'll get done when it's done.'"

Rhea Optical Co. at 1105 Broadway has also suffered from the work. "It makes people aggravated when they can't get in," said owner Chuck Ross. "This is just one more thing that will drive them out to do their shopping on the west end."

tgreaney@semissourian.com

335-6611, extension 245