A $43,000 change order for the State Street water pump station is on hold until September 14. The water division says the redesigned bypass would avoid a prolonged shutdown and possible boil-water advisory in the Warwick Neck service area; the original design can still be built.
The Warwick City Council voted Monday to hold a $43,000 change order for the State Street water pump station project until its September 14 meeting, after an extended and often heated debate in which several councilmen said the city’s engineering consultant should absorb the cost itself.
The money would pay the project’s contractor, Hart Engineering, to build a redesigned temporary bypass system so the pump station can keep running while the work is done. The city’s water division chief told the council the redesign became necessary after test pits dug on June 16 and 17 found vertical bends and unrestrained leaded joints in the existing piping that, in his words, “were not fully accounted for in the original bypass design.”…