Work to repair Jackson Street delayed

Wednesday, April 9, 2008

Problems persisted on Tuesday as work crews tried to repair holes in North Jackson Street, but the mayor says the work should be completed today.

Large metal plates have covered the holes all winter. The holes were left by previous work on a water line and have led to many complaints by drivers who've had to drive around the plates or drive over them, causing quite a jolt to their cars. The city was waiting for the asphalt plants to reopen this spring before repairing the holes.

On Tuesday, the work stopped after damage to the stormwater drainage system in the area was discovered.

George Russell, utilities supervisor for the city, told members of the city council that the storm drain was fractured and further examination revealed the stormwater system was clogged, causing an excess amount of leftover rain water to collect in the system.

All this caused work on repairing the holes in the road to stop until the clogged system can be repaired. Russell told the council that crews tried to run a camera through the line to find the problem, but the equipment wasn't able to move past an area near the Monon restaurant and the railroad tracks.

Mayor Murray assured the council that the city would address the problem and that the holes in Jackson Street would be repaired as soon as possible.

City Attorney Laurie Hardwick said there seems to be a discrepancy between the city and the state highway department as to who is responsible for repairing the problem.

Mayor Murray said the city would go ahead with the repairs so it doesn't hold up the street repairs and work out the problem with the state at a later time.

Hardwick said the problems with the stormwater system were not caused by the work that was done on the water line last year.

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