CITY HALL PROJECT STALL? Contractor may be to blame

High profile Hinkson Creek project may have run aground

 

COLUMBIA, 7/1/12 (Beat Byte) -- Problems with a contractor may have stalled a nearly $400,000 project to replace a badly-corroded sewer line in an environmentally sensitive area of the Hinkson Creek along the MKT Trail.

Approved by the Columbia City Council in 2011, the Hinkson Creek sewer outfall replacement project (pictures here) has closed a high-profile part of the MKT Trail about 100 yards south of its intersection with the Mizzou Recreational Trail.

 

Designed to reduce so called "sanitary sewer overflows" into basements and around manholes, the project has concerned environmental advocates because of its location near the already-vulnerable Hinkson Creek. The delay could expose the Hinkson to further environmental problems.

 

Concerned about potential environmental violations on the project in April, local Sierra Club conservation committee chairman Ken Midkiff photographed the site and warned Columbia public works director John Glascock that he would file a formal complaint with relevant agencies.

 

But Midkiff didn't have to file any complaints. "All deficiencies/violations were promptly corrected," he said. "But now, I have learned that apparently, a couple of weeks ago, the City called a halt to the whole thing due to some sort of 'contractor error.' What now? The problem of overflow of raw sewage -- which enters Flat Branch and flows into Hinkson Creek (about 1/4 mile away) -- still remains."