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Subject: County road crew damaged our common area

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DwightT
(Idaho)

Posts:456

06/28/2008 5:11 AM
The road that runs in front of our neighborhood recently had some widening work done, including the addition of curb and gutter. Initially the work stopped North of our neighborhood at the entrance to the neighborhood North of us and didn't impact us at all. We had a landscaped area along the road, including a sidewalk and a grass berm that sloped down to the road. However it seems that sometime in the last couple of weeks the widening work extended further south into our area. In the process the road crews cut into our berm and damaged the irrigation system. Our grass now slopes down to a sudden raw-cut drop-off to the road. We received no advance notice that any of this work was going to be done. When the irrigation system was first damaged our grounds manager contacted the county highway dept. and the contractor doing the actual work to see about doing repairs. At the time the county told him that the damage would be repaired when construction was complete. Yesterday I received a message from our grounds manager. He had received a call from the contractor who stated that the repairs would be our problem. His reasoning was that they had gone over budget and we had not contributed anything to the improvements as some of the other neighborhoods in the area had. Again, we were not contacted about the project in advance, and originally the work did not extend into our area. I don't know yet though if the original plans did include our area (hyperspace bypass anyone?). I called one of my contacts out at the highway dept. (I've worked on various committees with them for several years) and he agreed with me that the contractor's logic leaves a bit to be desired (his language was actually a bit more colorful than that). He is going to get in touch with the project manager for this project and find out what is going on. The final walk-through (where the county accepts the work and authorizes payment to the contractor) is scheduled for Tuesday morning. I plan on attending and voicing a few objections. I'm fairly certain that the county will require the contractor to repair the damage before they accept the work, but I'm wondering if I should have the attorney on stand-by just in case?

RobertR1
(South Carolina)

Posts:2154

06/28/2008 6:04 AM
Dwight, Let's hear it for Dwight and I am totally serious. You took your responsibility to your association serious, you recognized a problem, you took steps to build a time record, you made inquires, you informed your Regime and you went beyond that with your personal connections and did some ground work. I have a strong feeing, and with the complete support of your Association in writing, you can solve Mr "Out Of Money Contractor" illegal infringement and distruction of your common property. I say to your board, hold off on attorney, give you the lead and if problems crops up, then bring in the attorney and dump your records on his desk. It should lower your cost (if necessary to hire attorney), hell, you built the case for him. Good job and good luck

DwightT
(Idaho)

Posts:456

06/29/2008 7:54 AM
Thanks, but this is almost too easy. I keep going out to look at the work, and it just boggles the mind that the contractor came up with that "reasoning". Ignoring the "over budget" excuse, if they don't do something to repair the raw cut, then more of our landscaping will wind up eroding down into the new road. The more I think about it, the more confident I am that the county project manager is going to rake him over the coals for the crappy work and his response to us. When I posted before I was thinking that we might want to have the attorney prepared just in case to get a restraining order to prevent the county from declaring the work completed and paying off the contractor. I probably still pass the info by him just as a heads-up since that won't cost us anything, but I doubt if it will be necessary for him to get involved.

RobertR1
(South Carolina)

Posts:2154

06/29/2008 8:09 AM
Dwight, I lack your confidence, but admire your positive attitude. Don't go to the bar yet for that celebratory drink. Just keep your hands near your holsters and ever ready to step back in and get all the ducks back in line. You know they wander around when no one is watching.

DonnaS
(Tennessee)

Posts:2841

06/29/2008 9:23 AM
Good reply Robert and you are so right. The contractor is responsible for returning this area back to it's original state. It is the Countys job to make sure that it is done. No questions about the responsibility at all.

KirkW1
(Texas)

Posts:1145

06/29/2008 9:04 PM
Hate to rain on the parade, but you may be out of luck. You see the county owns and controls a certain distance from the center of the road. If your improvements fall within this distance, the county has full discretion on repairing any damage done by their contractor. Many counties do pay for repair of land degraded by their workers (or agents). But some choose not to. All the same, it sounds like the contractor is trying to get your association to pay up. And if the county specified that he would repair damages then he is on the hook. You are still on the right track to show up and make your voice heard. And since someone told you that the damage would be repaired, I would try and hold them to it. Hopefully you have the name of the person you spoke to.

BradP
(Kansas)

Posts:1742

06/30/2008 6:58 AM
I wouldn't give up so easily on it though, keep fighting and keep after the county to get it fixed. The squeaky wheel will get the grease, so don't go away quietly.

DwightT
(Idaho)

Posts:456

06/30/2008 8:01 AM
Posted By KirkW1 on 06/29/2008 9:04 PM Hate to rain on the parade, but you may be out of luck. You see the county owns and controls a certain distance from the center of the road. If your improvements fall within this distance, the county has full discretion on repairing any damage done by their contractor. I don't know about Texas, but here the adjacent property owner "owns" the property out to the center of the road. The county or other appropriate entity just has an easement for a specified distance in order to build and maintain the roads. If they want to widen the roads, they have to "negotiate" with the property owner for the additional right-of-way. I used quotes because the negotiation is usually pretty one-sided: the road dept. informs the owner that they are taking the land and here is the price that will be paid. It's actually a little more involved than that, but that is the general gist of the process. I have no real objections to the widening itself. I think everybody in the neighborhood realizes that eventually all of that road will be 4 lanes plus a center turn lane for a couple of miles on either side of our neighborhood. But the work needs to meet certain design criteria, which currently it doesn't for the part that involved our frontage. I strongly suspect that this is going to turn out to be a contractor screw-up and he is trying to get out of the responsibility of repairing it. From past experience with the county I'm fairly certain that they will require the contractor to repair it before they sign off on it.

RobertR1
(South Carolina)

Posts:2154

06/30/2008 9:38 AM
Dwight and all, There are times everyone has a different story and maybe all have validity, but the problem is specific and the guy on the ground is going to end up doing the work. I still say this association should give Dwight his head and lead him lead the parade, if he needs help down the line, support him and all like him that are willing to stick their neck (nose) out.

DwightT
(Idaho)

Posts:456

07/02/2008 7:58 AM
As a followup on this, the inspector from the county came out and basically handed the contractor a long list of things that still needed to be done, including repairing our landscaping and irrigation. It looks like the contractor was trying to rush the end of the project (probably because he has gone over budget and was trying to get the "early" bonus) and called for the inspection at least a week too soon. The county didn't fall for it and will be requiring another inspection before they sign off.

RobertR1
(South Carolina)

Posts:2154

07/02/2008 8:38 AM
Dwight, You are fortunate to have a good contact at the inspectors office. I have found some of them to be worse than CIA agents when it comes to giving out info. If this is the case, thank him from a bunch of us that can be taken a busy bodies out looking to make trouble. I like to think we all all work for the same boss, no matter who signs the checks. I spent a long period in civil service und half of this was spent complaining about the people in civil service until I started to understand that there was nothing special about civil servants, they just had all the same faults as the rest of the country and there actually was some very fine professionals, tradesmen, clerks, administrators, and on and on; I just had my eyes closed.

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