$100K budget transfer OK’d for grout lawsuit
The city will transfer $100,000 within its budget to pay for the lawsuit the municipality is filing over sewer line damage allegedly caused during repair of the Washington Avenue sinkhole.
During a meeting Tuesday, the Common Council unanimously adopted a resolution authorizing the budget transfer without any further public discussion of the move. The transfer is to help fund litigation approved by lawmakers in September.
The transfer will involve $50,000 from the city’s contingency fund and $50,000 from the sewer fund.
“A summons with notice was served on the parties [being sued],” city Corporation Counsel Kevin Bryant said Wednesday. “It establishes a filing date within the applicable period of time to start the action.” Bryant said a detailed complaint will be filed “shortly.”
Bryant previously said the case will be against “multiple parties” and seek to recoup costs for “all of the grouting work that’s been done relative to the damage that was done on Washington Avenue.”
The sewer line became blocked by grout used by contractors during repair of a sinkhole that first opened on Washington Avenue, near Linderman Avenue, in April 2011.
During the sinkhole repair, which took several years, a new lining was installed in a portion of the existing sewer pipe. Part of that lining was damaged and collapsed during the grouting process that followed, allowing the grout to partly fill the tunnel and block the flow in a section of the city’s sanitary sewer system beneath Washington Avenue.
The grout ultimately was removed this past April, and the affected portion of the tunnel was relined in June.
The city has borrowed about $2.5 million to pay for the grout removal and related expenses. The total cost of the sinkhole-related work on Washington Avenue exceeds $10 million.