Last week, following the trench digging and pipe laying contractor Mullen's long-anticipated departure from Warren Street, the very sloppy and questionably qualified paving contractor Bob Talham, Inc. of Troy began repaving the street. On Monday and Tuesday of this week, in preparation of repaving the north side of the street, they tore up at least a ten-foot width of the 400 and 500 blocks, as well as some of 6th and 5th streets. Yesterday, Talham wisely took the day off in the rain. Today, with the rough street surfaces wet from yesterday's and this morning's rain, Talham went ahead and began repaving, starting on 6th Street by the County Clerk's Office. Not only is Talham installing asphalt over wet surfaces today, but they are also doing it while it continues to rain, including along 2 blocks of Warren Street.
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| Even if the asphalt holds up well, the seams between old and new asphalt WILL NOT! |
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| 2 widths totaling about 23 feet of Warren are being repaved, leaving about 15 feet in the middle untouched. 3 blocks of the street will not be a cohesive unit. Just watch -- soon it will begin to come apart bit by bit right along the 2 long seams and possibly elsewhere. |
Talham still has plenty of repaving to do when they are done on the three blocks of Warren (from 6th to 3rd), which will take at least one more week (possibly longer if it rains). This includes 10-feet or more widths of the following streets: some of Columbia Street above Park Place, all of Green Street, 3rd Street from Allen to Prison Alley and the 200 block of State Street (which they left in an absolute mess several months ago). National Grid (or possibly Mullen) began tearing up the 300 block of State last week and left quite a mess after covering their trench with dirt and stones. Mullen has been laying gas pipes in the 400 block of Union for the past two weeks. Eventually, Talham will be repaving those areas as well.
The question is: Should Talham's pavement work fail anytime soon, who will repair it? Who will pay to repair it?
Colarusso's repaving of South 3rd Street 7 years ago quickly began to fail, but the city/DPW is paying to repair their shoddy work that has left the surface in a crumbling mess. We've been paying to fix that mess for the past two years and will continue to do so for at least another two years.
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| One of the many ugly results of Colarusso's repaving work on 3rd Street done in late 2017, not even 7 years ago. (Pictures taken last week) |
It's worth noting what our DPW Superintendent Robert Perry failed to mention at April's informal council meeting. He only had this to say this about National Grid's/Mullen's on-going gas line replacement project on Warren Street: "A quick thing about Mullen. Mullen should be wrapping up Warren Street in early May." Our Great Communicator on Zoom gave the impression to the council and the public that once Mullen was finished on Warren that there would be no more work there OR ANYWHERE ELSE by Talham or any other contractors needing to repave Mullen's temporary asphalt over their trenches along several streets. Mr. Perry did not bother mentioning that Talham would be tearing up Warren Street again AFTER MULLEN "WRAPPED UP" on Warren, having torn into both sides of the street months ago to dig their trenches. It was as if Mr. Perry was not even aware of what was coming our way or, as I presume, he simply didn't want to mention that the paving contractor from Troy will be repaving our streets for months to come -- yes, even AFTER MULLEN IS FINISHED ON WARREN STREET.
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| A recent and rare sighting of the elusive one! Yes, he was wearing his blue Crocs! |
DPW Superintendent Robert Perry is paid over $117,000 a year in salary. This morning while in the DPW offices on the second floor of City Hall, I asked both the DPW clerks (who work for Mr. Perry) if Mr. Perry was available. One clerk told me that "Rob is never here," and the other told me that she wasn't sure where his office was but that it "might be up at the water plant." Unsatisfied, I then tried to ask our mayor if he knew where the DPW Superintendent's office was located, but Kamal was not in his office either. I wanted to ask Mr. Perry if he was okay with the paving contractor Talham paving his streets in the rain over wet surfaces. I also might have asked Mr. Perry if he was even aware that the repaving of Warren and other streets was taking place today, likely well into the future and well after Mullen "wrapped up" on Warren Street earlier this month.
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| This is Mullen paving over their trench on N. 3rd Street 3 or 4 months ago. Talham will soon be tearing all of that asphalt out (all the way to Allen Street) and replacing it with new asphalt, preferably not while it is wet or raining. This project is so incredibly WASTEFUL! |
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