Swampscott delays police station project

SWAMPSCOTT – Town officials said construction of the new police station has been halted due to liability concerns over temporary sewer infrastructure at the site, but the delay will not cost the town any money.”There’s a lot of heavy equipment (to be placed) at the site ? they don’t want to assume the risk of damaging something and being responsible,” said Director of Public Works Gino Cresta. “We’re shooting for mid-February, once we can remove the bypass and pumps.”Town officials held a ground-breaking Dec. 9 for the new police station to be built next to the wastewater pumping station on Humphrey Street.At the ceremony, town and construction officials said they expected site work to begin the next week and set a year-long time line for the construction.The wastewater pumping station had experienced a catastrophic failure on Sept. 25 that flooded the lower levels of the building with an 18-foot deep pool of raw sewage.To maintain service, the town relayed tankers of raw sewage to Lynn for treatment and installed a temporary bypass system at the site to pump wastewater around the damaged pump station and to the treatment facility.Former Town Administrator Andrew Maylor told the Daily Item in late September the failure appeared to have been caused by a crack in a pipe carrying sewage between the pumps.Cresta said the contractors for the new police station, TLT Construction Corp. of Wakefield, expressed concerns about bringing heavy equipment to the site which might damage the bypass system and make the company liable for cleanup. Cresta said town and construction officials met last week and – although nothing has been signed as of Monday – have an understanding that the contract would be extended so the year-long time line would begin once construction started.The extension would be a “no-cost change order,” Cresta said, meaning the delay would cost the town no money.Cresta predicted the agreement to be signed in the next week or two. He also predicted work such as clearing the site would begin in approximately three weeks once the sewage bypass system is removed and the pump station’s refurbished equipment is reinstalled.Employees for TLT Construction could not be reached for comment Monday.Cresta estimated that repairs to the pumping station would cost $750,000 but were covered by insurance. The town has hired an attorney to see if any of the $250,000 cost for installing and running the bypass system could be recouped from companies who were working on improvements at the station when the failure occurred, he said.Several town officials supported the decision to delay the project.”I’m actually happy that it’s going to be pushed off – I didn’t want further concerns,” said temporary Town Administrator Dave Castellarin.Although he was not aware of the details of the extension, Board of Selectmen Chairman Matt Strauss said it was important to get things “done right.””It makes sense,” Strauss said. “You need to take care of one situation before you start another. I don’t think it will be detrimental to the project. It’s just a matter of doing things in the proper order so that they’re done correct.”Former Police Station Building Committee member and Town Moderator Joe Markarian agreed.”It’s not uncommon” to have a delay, he said. “It’s good that they’re moving forward.”Cyrus Moulton can be reached at [email protected].