By Steve Plunkett
Work on Phase 2 of the town’s $13 million water main, drainage and road project — affecting homes on the east side of Gulf Stream’s Core area — did not start as expected in March, a delay that will push construction into 2026.
How far into next year? “I think that would be dangerous to give you any kind of date,” Town Manager Greg Dunham said.
The contractor, Roadway Associates LLC, had hoped to reach “substantial completion” of the first phase by March 27 and get permission to start the second, which it then expected would have been finished in mid-December. But the company and the town had widely different definitions of “substantial.”
“I just believe based on historical performances and meeting deadlines that they in fact set for themselves to meet, I don’t feel comfortable moving on and starting a new phase with so much that’s left to do in Phase 1,” Dunham told the Town Commission on March 15.
“We were presented with the idea that we were going to be able to start Phase 2 when Phase 1 was not 100% completed,” Roadway project manager George Perez countered.
The main hang-up was the fact that the Palm Beach County Health Department had not approved the new PVC piping on the west side of the Core as “fit for public use,” nor had it been asked to as of April 1.
Delray Beach, which supplies the town with drinking water, also has to accept the new pipes, Dunham said.
Obtaining Health Department approval could take two to four weeks once the application is submitted, officials said at the March 15 commission meeting. Then 78 homes will need to be connected, at the rate of five homes per day, Perez said, or about 16 workdays.
“You’re not realistically getting this thing wrapped up … till like the middle of June,” Vice Mayor Tom Stanley said.
Dunham said the contractor has continued to restore the landscaping, sprinklers and driveways of homes affected by the first phase.
Gulf Stream has put Roadway on notice “that the date of substantial completion has passed and that we are starting to calculate liquidated damages,” Assistant Town Attorney
Trey Nazzaro said. Those damages are set at $500 for each additional day the project isn’t finished.
And Perez said the contractor will be requesting additional days beyond the date specified in its contract to make up for unforeseen problems it encountered. “It’s about 60 days if you make me try to guess,” he said.
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