After being ripped up for months for drainage work, the roads have been repaved between 28th and 34th streets.
By Donald Wittkowski
Ocean City will reluctantly stick with the construction company overseeing a troubled $6.5 million drainage project instead of fighting it out in court or trying to remove the contractor from the job.
City officials said litigation against the lead contractor, A.E. Stone Inc., could prove risky, including the possibility that the company would respond by seeking a court injunction to shut down the project.
“Litigation may not work in the city’s favor,” Councilman Keith Hartzell said.
While a lawsuit against A.E. Stone doesn’t appear likely, Hartzell added that the city continues to pressure the company to complete the overdue construction as quickly as possible.
“I think we’re at the point that A.E. Stone knows we’re serious,” Hartzell said.
Hartzell and other city officials strongly criticized the company during a town meeting Saturday attended by about 100 residents of the Fourth Ward, the part of town where the drainage project is being built between 28th and 34th streets.
During a town meeting Saturday, Councilmen Bob Barr, left, and Keith Hartzell had harsh words for the contractor overseeing the delayed drainage project.
Although most of the meeting Saturday focused on the city’s preliminary plan to develop a comprehensive flood-control strategy for the Fourth Ward between 36th and 59th streets, city officials used part of the forum to express their frustration with A.E. Stone.
“They’re behavior is pathetic,” Fourth Ward Councilman Bob Barr said.
Responding to complaints from residents about the project’s slow pace and disruptions, Barr has been particularly outspoken in his criticism of the company in the past few months. He believes the city should never hire A.E. Stone again for any other construction project.
However, Barr said the “last thing” the city wants to do is become involved in protracted litigation against A.E. Stone that could bring the drainage work in the Fourth Ward to an abrupt halt.
Instead, the city is looking at the possibility of invoking lateness penalties incorporated in the construction contract to pressure the company, officials said.
In his weekly message posted on the city’s website, Mayor Jay Gillian said his administration continues to meet with A.E. Stone and its subcontractors to get the project finished. Gillian noted that the contractors are supposed to give him a detailed timeline this week for the remainder of the project.
Vince Bekier, aide to the mayor, told residents at Saturday’s meeting that Gillian remains as frustrated as anyone else in the city over A.E. Stone’s work performance.
“If we could eliminate them as this contractor, believe me, this mayor would,” Bekier said.
At the intersection of 30th Street and Haven Avenue, construction has begun on one of the pumping stations that will help ease flooding in the neighborhood.
As the project has dragged on, months behind schedule, city officials have become less and less certain in saying when it may finally be done.
Characterizing it as an encouraging sign, Bekier said a new project manager “who seems more motivated” has just taken charge of the construction for A.E. Stone.
The drainage project started promising enough when it got underway last year. The goal was to dramatically reduce the amount of flooding that plagues the surrounding neighborhoods.
The construction zone encompasses the blocks from 28th to 34th streets between West Avenue and Bay Avenue. Simpson and Haven avenues serve as the spines of the project.
City officials had originally thought construction would be finished by Memorial Day weekend, just in time for the start of the bustling summer tourism season. However, homeowners had to endure ripped-up streets, detours and noisy construction equipment invading their neighborhoods through much of the summer.
With a crucial part of the project still not finished, Bekier said the best guess is for construction to wrap up by the end of the year.
“We’re hoping by the end of the year, but I can’t make that guarantee,” he said.
After being ripped up for months for drainage work, the roads have been repaved between 28th and 34th streets.
Construction consists of three major parts, including repaving the streets, installing new drainage pipes to replace some that are 40 to 60 years old and building four pumping stations.
The pumping stations will help remove storm water from the flood-prone neighborhoods and channel it to drainage pipes leading to the bay.
Contractors recently installed the drainage pipes and repaved the roads, but still must build the pumping stations.
Work will continue through the summer on the pumping stations. Two stations located at 30th Street and Haven Avenue and next to the Ocean City Municipal Airport parking lot are in place and the equipment is being installed.
Work on a pumping station and pipeline on airport property at the end of 28th Street will be next, followed by construction on the final pumping station adjacent to Clubhouse Lagoon off Bayland Drive, according to a project update on the city’s website.
