Two months after the Sewerage & Water Board’s new, $300 million power complex tripped offline during severe weather, utility leaders are focusing an internal investigation on private contractors to determine who was responsible and what can be done to improve reliability.
While that is ongoing, officials, in interviews last week, acknowledged problems with the advice they received from the multinational engineering firm that designed the project, which city leaders say is crucial for reliable drainage.
S&WB executives and a top official in Mayor Helena Moreno’s administration said that Jacobs Solutions didn’t provide them with critical information about basic equipment requirements. Because of that, officials said they didn’t know the new system was vulnerable to common power disruptions until it was up and running…