WPCNR THE SEWER REPORT. By John F. Bailey. September 4, 2007 UPDATED 4 PM E.D.T.: The Nicoletti Bypass sewer connection on William Street, built to relieve the Main Street sewer of new effluent from the 221 Main hotel and condominium complex (nearing completion), failed its first test recently when sewage backup and pooling was discovered according to the contractor who installed the bypass. The original contractor who claimed he wanted to install the pipe with extra ballast to hold it in place and was told not to do so by the city
Nicoletti Bypass Sewer Line, as it looked Tuesday morning at Main and William Street.
The city disputes this. Melissa Lopez, a spokesperson for the Mayor’s Office, told WPCNR that “the original contractor is back on the job now (as of 2:30 PM Tuesday) and has come in “to fix what was his mistake.”
The contractor was observed to be back onsite on the 221 Main site where the new sewer line begins as of 4 PM Wednesday afternoon.
Lopez said Commissioner of Public Works, Joseph Nicoletti said “the contractor is back on the job right now and fixing it.” Lopez said the fix is being executed at the contractor’s expense at no cost to the city or Cappelli Enterprises.
Asked what was the cause of the pooling and backup, Lopez said, “The pipe was installed improperly.”
Dan Seidel,who watches the Main Street construction from his offices on William Street, reports to WPCNR that he was talking with the construction company owner on the job site last week who explained to Seidel what was causing the digup.
Seidel said the contractor who installed the pipe explained that when a sewage test was conducted recently prior to the opening of the Ritz-Carlton Westchester complex, previously scheduled for mid-October,” test sewage pooled and was not moving.”
Lopez placed the date of the sewer test as about a month and a half ago.
The Nicoletti Bypass boarded over Tuesday morning awaiting major surgery.
The city had the contractor dig up the area on Main Street to see what the problem was. The contractor told Seidel the pipe along 123 Main Street (in front of the New York Power Authority Building) somehow “floated and moved after everything was poured and hardened” snapping the pipe. Last Friday, according to Seidel a sewer cleanup company was at the William Street and Main corner cleaning up the spilled sewage. “It really did stink that day,” Seidel reports.
An alleged Disagreement
According to Seidel, the contractor who operated the heavy machinery told him the White Plains Department of Public Works told him he only needed “K-crete” for securing the pipe, not rocks first then K-crete.
Seidel says the contractor told him that buried pipes unless weighted down, move. The contractor explained to Seidel that he had advised The City of White Plains that he wanted to put heavy boulders on top of the pipes to hold them in place, and then K-crete because White Plains had never installed a pipe this deep before, and the contractor did not know what forces the pipe would be subjected.
The contractor according to Seidel, “I wanted to do it (put in heavy boulders), but the city engineer supervising the job said “No need. You don’t have to do it.”
Told about this, Lopez said she knew nothing about it, but would get the Department of Public Works side of the story. WPCNR also asked when the sewer test occurred and it raises the question of if the pipe was installed improperly why did not the city engineer know it was being installed improperly and point it out.
Lopez reports to WPCNR that Commissioner Nicoletti says “The contractor failed to put in the pipe the way it should have been done, and that he (Nicoletti) does not know anything in response to the contractor’s suggestion of boulders.”
Lopez reports that Commissioner Nicoletti and the contractor have mutually worked out “an alternative (to secure the pipe) consisting of crushed stones followed by K-crete.”
The site remains dug up as of Tuesday morning with no work in progress, however the contractor is reported by Ms. Lopez as back this afternoon.
Lopez said she had no date when the pipe was expected to be fixed.
Nicoletti Bypass pipe in its trench awaiting surgery this morning.
