Posted by Billy NY on November 20, 2014 at 05:45:41 from (66.67.105.23):
In Reply to: Engineering question posted by 37Chief on November 19, 2014 at 10:38:13:
That is a seemingly odd situation, with a result of defective or unacceptable work, (incorrect invert elevation, incorrect pipe elevation).
I am very familiar with and have at times specialized in dealing with similar situations. Obviously, the design documents do not match what was actually installed, for whatever reason, and or under what circumstances? It's extremely odd that a municipality would acknowledge a defect such as this, and no action was taken initially. To me, it makes absolutely no sense. Said municipality has a gravity type sanitary system for example, which would likely have been professionally designed, and installed to meet the design shown on their documents, by a contractor through the competitive bidding process, resulting in a contract award to perform/install the specified work, all per contract documents that should clearly provide all details and provisions. ( yes there may be unforseen conditions and its likely that the municipality has an indemnity clause in the contract, as well as insurance, bonding and similar requirements - its usually "boiler plate") In this scenario, typically the contractor would be liable and would not receive payment for defective work that is discovered through the inspection process.
Say that above sanitary system was initially installed at one point, prior to this 8" line you speak I'll call it an extension to the main system, and it sounds as if it was to provide service to a small section of the municipality. A private entity is involved and manages the process, at some point the contractor submits a design, or has their engineer provide it, to submit it to the municipality for approval, which was likely done by the plan examiner and compared to the existing infrastructure for compatibility, coordination, and all other important aspects that must be reviewed prior to granting approval. Said contractor receives the approved plans and commences work.
Who was inspecting the work as it proceeded ????
Who checked invert elevations in the field ????
Was the entire job completed, then the city inspector discovered the defective work ?
The municipality would more than likely never accept any defective work, especially with a gravity type sanitary system. So the owner would have to have been notified, (the one who hired the contractor)
What was the owners arrangement with the contractor ?????
It would be common sense for any owner to hold the contractors money until the work was substantially completed, meaning when the defective work was discovered and typically by virtue of contract documents, the contractor should or would have been liable to either correct the work, make it acceptable, and then receive payment or their contract is terminated, the money, bond, insurance etc. provides the means to complete the contract successfully, correcting the defective work. Often times the contract will call for a bond, and if used, the bonding company will bring in their contractor to complete the work, something I have been directly involved in on a $200M courthouse in Queens NY. I know the process well enough and it can be a real mess depending on the situation.
Rereading your post, the contractor is still in existence, and 12 years later wants additional money or wants to get paid for work defective and unacceptable work done 12 years ago ???? This makes no sense to me at all. I'd pay nothing at all, how can you pay for defective work, then consider the cost of correcting the problem at the house with the flow problem, requiring a pump or similar means to avoid excavation and correcting the real problem. The contractor needs to correct all defective work, prior to even considering payment being released or is how I would see it ?
The engineering aspect of this is long since over, and the only relevant detail, per what you told us, is the defective work, ie; incorrect invert and or pipe elevations. Its all legal now, claims and lawsuits, but with the city indemnified, and the alleged contractor off site for 12 years, it may be difficult or impossible to obtain any compensation to correct the defective work. I used to be pretty good at preparing documents and doing the initial leg work to provide documentation for claims to substantiate or discredit samw, but that was always done while the job site was still active or before the substantial completion, 12 years later..... that is a real quandary !
One of the first outfits I worked for as an operator and or laborer at times, always during pipe work, we had a subcontract to install 1000' of 8" sanitary pipe with manholes, to connect to an existing town sewer system. It was laid out per the plans, the elevations established with an optical level, (transit level) and pipe laser aligning pipe with a target insuring each section of pipe was at the correct elevation, including 1/8" per foot slope. The owner of the company was relatively young, we were both in our mid 20's, but he had a lot of experience as his family was part of a large heavy/highway construction company, before some odd falling out occurred. They went in business on their own. Reason I mention it, was we had some very serious problems on that job, soil was all fine sand, the owner prior to, had done many miles of similar pipe work.
The 1000' with manholes was installed, camera inspection noted a problem, there was a significant sag in the new line, and we were held accountable to excavate that section and correct the problem. There is a lot more to this, but it was a difficult job with the sand and high water table, somehow it sagged, but it was corrected soon after. It's well known too, I went to a job interview with a contractor in that area a few yeas back, and he remembered that job specifically, and what happened there being in the same town. That line is still in service today.
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