Bellevue work crews are running into some glitches as they race against the weather to build sidewalks and install water meters before the snow flies.
About 100 feet of concrete sidewalks laid last week on Fifth Street for the Safe Routes to School program by Forsgren Associates came in about 8 inches higher than planned and will have to be torn out and repoured.
"We did mess up on portions of it," said Stephen Yearsly, project manager with Forsgren, at a Thursday City Council meeting. "The crews were working fast to beat the weather."
Andy Harding, who owns a house on Fifth Street between Cedar and Elm streets said he was "shocked" to see the height of the sidewalk and knew there was a problem.
"There is a big hump from the street edge," said Harding. "I can't live with that."
Council Chairman Chris Koch agreed with Harding that the work should be redone.
"It's been a two-year process. Let's do it right," Koch said.
Yearsly said his company would rebuild the sidewalk at no cost to the city.
Meanwhile, across town at Seventh Street, city work crews have been installing some of the first water meters in the city. John Mayne received one of the first meters and found that his water flows had been reduced as a result.
"The meters add about 36 feet of run to the plumbing in a home," Mayne told the council Thursday. He said he would have to re-adjust his lawn sprinklers as a result of the change in water pressure from 60 pounds per square inch to 45 pounds per square inch.
Mayne and others in the neighborhood getting the new water meters said they also found sand and gravel in plumbing lines after the meters were installed.
In some cases the gravel is flushed through plumbing and causes no problem, as it did at Al Yates' house nearby. But in Mayne's case, a plumber tweaked a valve with gravel in it and cracked an old galvanized pipe under his house.
Mayne estimated the cost to repair his water line to be about $1,200.
"This is just the nightmare we feared with hooking up to old water lines," said City Administrator Tom Blanchard.
The City Council instructed staff to put together a cost-sharing agreement among the excavator, the plumber and the city to pay for the line break and fix the leak before freezing winter temperatures hit Bellevue.
Once water meters are installed across the city, perhaps in 15 years time, the city will charge water users by the gallon, rather than a flat monthly rate.
Earlier this summer, city officials, strapped for cash, borrowed $140,000 from the water fund to jumpstart the Safe Routes to School sidewalks project, which is designed to provide sidewalks from Main Street to Bellevue Elementary School.
Blanchard said in June that the Idaho Transportation Department will reimburse the money to the city "probably within four weeks," of completion of the sidewalks.
The Safe Routes sidewalks will connect several parks within the city with a pedestrian and bicycle path. Funding was secured by a federal grant acquired by Mountain Rides, the county's public transportation agency.
Tony Evans: tevans@mtexpress.com
This new sidewalk on Fifth Street in Bellevue came in several inches higher than planned last week. Forsgren Associates will tear them out and start over, hopefully before the snow flies.
