WESTFIELD – The Board of Public Works approved three change orders Tuesday night related to the Arch Road drainage improvement project, funding required because of damage to a water transmission line.
City Engineer Mark Cressotti presented the BPW with three change orders, which total to $91,055, and would be paid by the Water Resource Department.
The Water Commission has already authorized payment of $17,503 to repair the asbestos-concrete line which was damaged during construction.
The Board of Public Works issued the stormwater contract in March to a city firm, JL Raymaakers of 1100 East Mountain Road in Westfield, which submitted the low bid of $684,745 for the project. The project was designed to replace drainage lines and realign the road to reduce the present curve and straighten out the heavily traveled roadway.
The focus of the project is to correct the drainage problem created when the state and city revamped the Massachusetts Turnpike access, creating the jug handle system that motorists, northbound on North Elm Street (Clay Hill), now use to enter the Massachusetts Turnpike.
That project was designed with a large drainage pipe collecting stormwater from that area and dropping it into the existing Arch Road drainage system which terminates at Arm Brook just beyond the intersection of Arch and Lockhouse roads.
The problem with that drainage connection was soon apparent. Property and business owners observed stormwater, when collected in the jug handle during heavy downpours, began shooting up from the storm drain manholes, sometimes gushing a couple of feet high.
City officials and consulting engineers investigated and discovered that the jug handle drainage was about twice the circumference of the Arch Road drainage line which could not accept the volume of stormwater being delivered by the jug handle line.
Cressotti said at the Water Commission meeting of June 4, 2013 that the road was marked for utilities as required by the state Safe Dig regulations, but that the water line location was not correctly marked. The Water Resource Department has a 12-inch water transmission line under the roadway.
“In the process of constructing the new drainage line there have been several water (line) issues,” Cressotti said. “The lateral service line off the water main in front of the old Decorated Metals plant was leaking and had to be replaced.”
“The water lines were marked out, but the contractor hit the lines because it was not where it had been marked,” Cressotti said. “As work proceeded the contractor hit the ‘mismarked’ water line and there was another washout. Then the water line blew again, but not in the project area.”
Cressotti said the water line is asbestos concrete that becomes fragile over time when it is installed in wet soil.
The latest failure of the asbestos-concrete line occurred this past weekend, resulting in another $17,000 repair bill. The repair cost of the second break, which caused a partial washout of the roadway, was $56,552.97.
Cressotti has suggested that the Water Commission approve a total line replacement which the drainage work is still ongoing and before the pavement is replaced, but the commission may have to wait until the beginning of the fiscal year, July 1, because its project funding has been depleted at this point of the current fiscal year.
