Talk about being caught between a rock and a hard place!
A Country Club sewer reconstruction project that was supposed to be finished by year’s end won’t get done until the Spring of 2015 thanks to a giant bolder found underground.
Construction on the project was halted when the huge rock was discovered in the street beneath Waterbury Avenue.
Now, the contractor needs to get its hands on German-made boring equipment to get the job done, said Community Board 10 district manager Kenneth Kearns,
At a meeting of CB10’s municipal services committee on Thursday, June 12, the community was informed that the job was going to take longer, and that utility poles and catch basins would have to be moved because of size of the equipment will take up a much of the width on the street.
Councilman Jimmy Vacca sympathized with the residents of Waterbury Avenue and surrounding streets, but wondered why we were leaving it up to German engineering to get the job done.
“Just when you think you’ve heard everything, now you hear something like this,” said Vacca. “It defies imagination that we have to go to a foreign country to get digging equipment. It just means another delay in a project that has caused major inconvenience in the construction phase. We need this like we need a hole in the head.”
Country Club Civic Association president Michael McNerney said that he is pushing for better communication from the Department of Design and Construction, but said that overall the community has had a good working relationship with the contractor. It will take three months to move catch basins and utility lines to make room for the digging equipment, he said.
“There is frustration with the sewer project because there have been unforeseen delays, especially for those residing on Waterbury Avenue,” he said. “But at the same time, we have had a positive working relationship with the contractor, and we know once they receive the monetary clearance, and the proper equipment to complete the job, we have the utmost faith they will give us a nice final project.”
Fellow association member Marcia Pavlica said residents there were still looking to have more of the equipment being stored on the street moved until construction gets underway again.
“We are tired of our community looking like a junkyard,” she said.
