Mayor halts construction on Boston's streets
Cites poor road repairs; contractors, utilities upset
By Andrea Estes, Globe Staff | June 23, 2006
Mayor Thomas M. Menino, after riding down a roughly repaved Dorchester Avenue, has abruptly halted all construction on Boston streets by utilities and contractors, saying he is fed up with the ragged condition of the roads.
In an unprecedented step, the mayor has also directed his public works commissioner to stop issuing permits allowing contractors to cut into the pavement.
Menino said the streets are being cut open by utility companies and others, then unevenly repaved, making driving through the city a bumpy ride. ``Streets are not being restored to their original condition and I'm tired of it," he said.
The mayor said he had received many complaints about sagging and poorly repaved roads, but it wasn't until this week, after being driven in his city sport utility vehicle on a stretch of Dorchester Avenue at Adams Street, that he decided to act.
``One utility did a cut and didn't put the street back the way it was," he said. ``I went down the street, and there was a 4-inch drop . . . and a rumble effect. I'm not going to stand for it. "
The halt to construction has startled some contractors, who say the moratorium, during high season for construction, will cost them time and money.
In a letter sent Tuesday to Public Works Commissioner Joseph Casazza ordering the moratorium, Menino said he has ``never seen our roadways so disrupted by utility cuts and poor repavement jobs."
Contractors who cut into city streets for all but the largest construction projects are required to pave them over with ``temporary patches" that must meet city specifications. They are supposed to fill the hole, tamp it down, and cover it with asphalt, and smooth the patch so it is even with the existing street. In cases where a street is cut open in numerous areas, the city will put a repaving project out for bid and fix it all at once.
But it's the smaller temporary patches that are the problem, Menino and other city officials said.
According to Michael Galvin, Menino's chief of basic services, the city tries to monitor the work and has shut down some construction jobs because stretches of street were being poorly repaved. The city has even made ``quick patches" itself, Galvin said.
With hundreds of construction projects ongoing in Boston's neighborhoods, Menino's edict could have a profound impact.
According to Galvin, there are 345 construction projects under way in the city on any given day. He said the city would continue to allow emergency work, such as gas leak or electrical outage repairs.
Otherwise, he said: ``Everything is stopped cold. If there was someone out there with a little left to do, we let them fix it. By tomorrow there will be nobody out there."
Galvin said he would meet next week with city officials, contractors, and utility company representatives to review the quality of repaving and grading expected by the city. The contractors will receive a detailed list of guidelines for patching street openings.
``We'll tell them: `We understand you have to do business, but we're not going to give you carte blanche to do what you want in the city,' " Galvin said. ``There are companies that are diligent and do a great job, but there are others . . . I've spoken to a few. They all say `it's not us.' "
Menino instructed Casazza to issue no permits until the Public Works Department develops a plan ``that will allow for the necessary work to be done while ensuring that our streets are restored to their former condition."
As word leaked of the mayor's decision, contractors and utility companies called the city to complain, Menino acknowledged.
``We've had letters from utility companies and construction companies saying, `You can't stop our work.' Just do the work the right way, and we won't stop you," said Menino. ``I have an obligation to the taxpayers. . . . [The workers] are causing an inconvenience to the taxpayers of our city."
Surprised contractors, who said they never heard of a municipality taking such action, said the suspension would cost them time and money, though it was not immediately clear how much.
``We just found out about it late this afternoon," said John Pourbaix of Construction Industries of Massachusetts, which represents contractors. ``We made a number of calls to the city and did not get answers. The biggest problem contractors are facing right now is uncertainty. They don't know when the suspension or moratorium is going to be lifted. "
``Construction is very, very labor intensive and with collective bargaining agreements, most or many of the trades are guaranteed a 40-hour week," he said. ``So if they work one day it's as good as five days. It's a huge, huge expense for contractors."
Beyond that, he said, contractors need to be able to schedule their work, and often face penalties if they fail to meet promised completion dates. ``Equipment is rented or leased," he said. ``Jobs have completion dates."
A spokeswoman for Keyspan, one of the biggest excavators of city streets, said the company is hoping the dispute is resolved quickly.
The city's ban on work ``is being honored and respected," said Keyspan spokeswoman Carmen Fields, adding that the company ``looks forward to continuing a dialogue and getting a reasonable reconciliation of the issues involved." She said Keyspan strives to meet the highest construction standards.
``We work very carefully to coordinate with other utilities and the city in doing our work to minimize disruption to residents and businesses," she said. ``We are part of an ongoing open dialogue to continue to improve the standards of work and the response. All of the work that we do when we make the cuts and redo the streets conform with the standards set by the [ state] Department of Telecommunications and Energy, our regulatory agency, and are regularly inspected by them."
Last night, Galvin said, the stretch of Dorchester Avenue where the mayor's SUV hit a rough patch had a steel plate over it.
Have you noticed a badly dug up or poorly repaved street in the city of Boston? Send an e-mail to starts@globe. com or call 617-929-3100. Andrea Estes can be reached at
estes@globe.com.
