It came as little surprise that with a significant portion of Broad Street already torn apart, Engineering Director Hameed Malik is back before the Augusta Commission asking for a massive change-order.
Of course, Malik also has his hand out asking for more funding.
Originally, the work on Broad Street was to continue block-by-block until its completion date of 2028, a timeline that has infuriated, and rightfully so, business owners on Augusta’s main downtown asphalt strip.
Malik presented a cost estimate of about $13 million to add a night shift to the work being done between Fifth and 13th streets in an effort to finish the section a year earlier. Malik didn’t address the fact that currently during the daylight hours, workers are rarely seen even leaning on shovels, the demolition machines seem to sit idle on cloudless days.
In a companion presentation, Malik also complained that contractors are having to deal with “bad dirt,” the same excuse that halted renovation on the Lake Olmstead Stadium years ago, and that work on Broad Street was slowed by unknown water and sewer lines.
In a city over 200 years old, there are bound to be the occasional hiccups due to unforeseen obstacles, but it begs the burning question of whether anyone bothered to consult with Water Works Director Wes Byne before they started digging.
Speaking of digging, the commission was forced to dig into the sofa cushions to come up with an additional $1 million to cover the cost of having to deal with those unforeseen obstructions.
When it comes to the extra funding needed to make the Broad Street reconstruction a 24-hour a day affair while the city is under a multi-million dollar IRS debt and having to pay back over $6 million thanks to the incompetence of the Department of Housing and Community Development, Malik’s approach was to shrug his shoulders and pretend there is a rainbow somewhere with a pot of gold waiting to be discovered as he claimed other sources of funding are “likely to turn up.”
Keep in mind, this is coming from the same department head that has never been able (or willing) to provide an accounting of the Storm Water Fees and where those collections have gone over the years.
We feel it is long past the time for the commission to “cut bait” with Malik and perhaps consult with former city traffic engineers Abie Ladson and Steve Cassell, who are currently already on retainer trying to sort out the mess in the Parks and Recreation Department.
It may cost more in the long run, but at least Ladson and Cassell have a track record of success, where Malik’s legacy is the destruction of healthy trees all along Broad Street, cost overruns and constantly asking for more funding for bridges to nowhere.
