Residents all shook up over pipeline

Jenny Marder

A sensation like a small earthquake rumbled through Lee Kagy’s home

several times in the past few months.

“It’s like a small 4.0,” Kagy said.

The shaking was caused by construction on an Orange County

Sanitation District pipeline that snakes through the city via her

Southeast Huntington Beach neighborhood.

Construction involves replacing an existing pipeline that runs

from the treatment plant in Huntington Beach along Brookhurst Street,

turns west on Banning Street, north on Bushard Street and runs all

the way to Ellis Avenue.

“It’s a replacement of an existing pipeline that’s about 50 years

old,” said David Ludwin, director of engineering with the Orange

County Sanitation District. “The pipeline has been corroded over time

and needs to be replaced.”

The pipe is also being expanded in size from four-and-a-half feet

to nine feet in diameter “to provide additional storage capacity to

help with flow management,” he said.

At a packed Southeast Huntington Beach Neighborhood Assn. meeting

Tuesday evening, several residents complained that the force of steel

plates driving into the ground has caused damage to their homes.

Kagy, who just finished remodeling his kitchen, said that the

molding on his walls is cracked.

The nature of the work does cause some vibration, Ludwin said.

“The material on the bottom of the trench has to be compacted,” he

said. “That takes some vibration. And the heavy equipment that we’re

using -- the large cranes -- they do cause some vibration There is

the potential for construction activities to cause some damage to

homes.”

Despite meetings with the sanitation department and the city,

nothing has been done, Kagy said.

“I complained right away and I took some pictures,” Kagy said.

“Nothing happened.”

A contractor hired by Steven P. Rados, the construction company

heading the project was sent to Kagy’s home to assess the damage, but

he never heard from him after that, he said.

“I haven’t gotten a check and as far as I know, no one’s gotten

the property fixed,” he said.

It’s the contractor’s responsibility to investigate every claim

and to fix the damage caused, Ludwin said.

But, he added, if the contractor denies a claim and sanitation

district officials still believe that damage was caused by

construction, they would take over the work.

“We’re not going to leave people hanging there,” Ludwin said. “If

we believe damage was caused by construction and the contractor

denies it than we’ll probably go in and fix it.”

Sanitation district officials say the project should be completed

by March 2005.

“We are trying our hardest to get the project to progress and

we’re trying to get through the neighborhood as quickly as we can.”