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A decision will be made at the Council meeting on October 10th about how to proceed with the completion of the Adamson Street project. It might not be a pleasant discussion.

The project was halted due to the contracted bidder discovering trolley rails beneath the road surface during the beginning of the milling process.

I went down to Adamson Street when the rails were exposed after milling of the street started. It took me by surprise that the contractor, Gorecon, didn’t know that they were there and I wasn’t shy in expressing my disbelief for everyone to hear that day, that they came as a surprise. Those of us on Council and our engineering firm, Barry Isett and Associates, were well aware that they would be found.

Mayor Gross mentioned their existence during preliminary project discussions at an open Council meeting. There was plenty of talk about how steel rails and the wood railroad ties could be disposed of after they were ripped out.

However, their presence below the surface of the roadway and expected removal for the bid price failed to be mentioned in the actual bid specifications and requirements that was given to bidders, I discovered later.

Because of that failure, the rails likely won’t be removed and an alternate method of repairing Adamson Street will have to be approved, at a higher price than initially expected. We will know that price at Monday’s meeting.

While it would be easy to point a finger at the engineering firm that prepared the bid, I can take some of the blame as a Councilman. Not everything can be blamed on the rush to get Adamson Street completed before the onset of Winter and the ability to use Liquid Fuels funds to pay for the project.

In hindsight, I could and should have asked to see what they were putting out there, before it went out. I never looked at the specs submitted for bid. The project was turned over to our engineering firm and I trusted them to get it right.

I didn’t find a mention of the rails or the requirement that they be removed, after reviewing them following this boondoggle that has taken place.

In hindsight, I could and should have asked to see the actual contract that was signed, before it was signed.

It doesn’t mention rail removal.

Yes, the road work will begin again and it will be completed, but it will cost us more than planned and not what we had expected to accomplish. The rails will remain until the next time Adamson Street needs repair, years from now.

In the past I have pointed out the actions of others that failed the Borough. I have to hold myself to that same standard, by my lack of action, and assume some of responsibility for this poorly executed project.

In the future I will be more vigilant and less trusting.