CORPUS CHRISTI, Tx — Residents who live near Port, between Tarlton and Agnes, said a street project has been going on there for awhile. One resident, who travels Port frequently said it's dangerous, particularly at night. So he asked the Troubleshooters for help finding out why it is not done.
The Troubleshooters drove down Port with Antonio Lopez, heading northbound from Tarlton. He and his family have lived in the area for a long time.
Currently there's a city street project that's been going on here for some time.
"I wanna say like a year and a half. Maybe 2. I'm not real, real sure," Lopez said. "But I just know it's taking way too long to fix it."
Lopez further claims the project has made driving up and down Port dangerous.
"Driving down this street at nighttime, or when it starts getting dark, you have people trying to cross the street," he said.
The Troubleshooters asked the Director of City Engineering Services Jeff Edmonds, what the project is all about.
Why is it necessary?
"It's replacing 16-inch waterline that was vintage 1950's. Experienced a lot of breaks when we raised the pressure on the distribution system," he said.
And further, Edmonds said the scope of the project expanded from its original purpose.
"After we started construction on that project, the utility department decided that we needed to expand the scope," Edmonds said. "We've had a lot of challenges on this project. A lot of the work that's going on is actually happening after hours at night, and there's been a lot of situations where we had an isolation plan, and we go and close the valve, and the pressure is still there. So the valve did not function."
For his part, Lopez is frustrated by the city's explanation.
"I believe that if this would have been anywhere else, any other part of town, let's say city council people, or the mayor's office, or somebody, if it would have been in their part of town, they would take care of that real quick," he said.
Edmonds said the contractor doing the work on Port assures him the work will be done by summer's end.
We'll be sure to follow up on this story, then.
