17 - Discuss failure and repair of newly placed water main at 100 block of South Main Street

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Item No. 17 TO: Mayor & Council Grayson Path, City Manager FROM: Carla Easton, PE, Director of Engineering & Community Development SUBJECT: SUMMARY OF S MAIN WATER LINE LEAK AND REPAIR DATE: September 28, 2020 BACKGROUND: In the evening of Friday, September 4, 2020, a water leak was visibly detected by way of wet asphalt pavement on South Main Street just south of the Clarksville Street intersection. Water was coming up through the asphalt pavement. Public Works responded to the call, but because this water line was installed as part of the 2013 Utility Bond Package 4 Contract with Oscar Renda Contracting, city crews secured the area by closing the traffic lane and notified Engineering of the issue. Upon initial inspection of the area, it was found that the cistern in the intersection was full of water. As a precaution, and to check for potential causes of the water surfacing, the public works crew pumped water from the underground cistern and waited overnight. On Saturday the pavement was still wet, so Oscar Renda Contracting was made aware of the leak and asked to explore and repair the problem. Emergency locates were called (marking the location of underground piping in preparation to dig), and on Tuesday, September 8th the contractor had a crew onsite who, working alongside city staff, attempted to locate the leak by turning off valves and observing the water flow. The location was generally identified and on Wednesday, September 9th, the contractor cut the street to make the repair at no additional cost to the city. The street cut was backfilled per the contract documents, and the asphalt was temporarily patched with black base asphalt until a permanent patch can be made with hot mix asphalt concrete. City staff and the third party inspector observed the repair. STATUS OF ISSUE: Questions have been raised as to the cause of the leak and whether the project was properly inspected. Provided herein is a summary of the water main installation and required inspections. A section of water main was installed by bore from Lamar to Clarksville on August 3, 2018, then a second section of water main was installed from Kaufman to Clarksville on August 22, 2018 by