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City OKs Blain
Published Thursday, July 24, 2008
NATCHEZ — The contractor that the city just hired to overlay the four major arteries in town — W.E. Blain Companies — is the same contractor that is being sued by Concordia Parish.
The Concordia Parish Police Jury filed suit June 10, alleging that the contractor laid improper foundations and used improper surfacing methods, which resulted in uneven roads.
Newly paved roads in the parish began falling apart within a year of their creation.
The City of Natchez, however, has placed a safeguard to prevent the problem that occured inthe parish, officials said.
City Engineer David Gardner said the city is in the process of hiring a retired civil engineer to act as a site manager.
“I’ve got a retired civil engineer who’s scheduled to do our inspection for us,” he said. “I’m working out the details.”
Gardner said this is typical practice of the city when projects are being conducted.
“Not only are they our eyes and ears on the project, but they keep a project record on daily activities,” he said.
Gardner said this person will make sure that the contract is adhered to, requirements are met and conditions are measured.
“It really protects me and it also protects the contractor,” he said.
This is not because Gardner distrusts the company.
“I have no doubt that they’re going to do a good job for us but it’s always good practice to have an inspector on the job,” Gardner said.
And Gardner said Blain Companies has proved its worth to the city in the past through multiple projects.
“Blain has done a lot of work for us,” he said.
Gardner said when he worked for MDOT as a project engineer, one of the projects he worked on was John R. Junkin Drive, adding in new curbs, gutters and storm drains.
He said that road still looks fine and that was between 16 and 18 years ago.
“That’s just one example,” he said. “They’ve been working for me for 25 years.
“I have no problem with them, they do a good job for me.”
Blain Companies’ bid of $1,298,208.60 was accepted by the board of aldermen Tuesday night at their regular meeting.
It was the only bid.
Gardner said he doesn’t mind that it was the only one, and it works perfectly for the city.
“I’m not concerned at all that we had one bid, in fact, they were inside our budget,” he said.
“We had estimated what the cost was and they were right in range of that, I’m not concerned that it’s high or too low.”
Comments
Posted by flylo (anonymous) on July 24, 2008 at 5:48 a.m. (Suggest removal)
I think it has more to do with the specifications called for by the Parish not the contractor as to why the roads in Concordia are not lastng.
D&J Construction built our road this past spring and it's already craking too.(thats less than 7 months) The heavy corn, rice, and soybean trucks haven't even started hauling yet, and the cracking pavement can already be seen up, and down the road.
Posted by mike8427 (anonymous) on July 24, 2008 at 7:35 a.m. (Suggest removal)
Thats true flylo, Concorida Parish could of had a low quality mix design for the asphalt, which could of yielded the road failures. Blains has done hundreds of projects in the Miss-Lou, they wouldn't risk their reputation on one job if they had made a mistake.
Posted by NatchezEnema (anonymous) on July 24, 2008 at 9:11 a.m. (Suggest removal)
Natchez should remember. Contractors are only as good as their last job, and, you get what you pay for. When you pay for the least you get the least, and by their last job in Concordia, well ,I will let it speak for itself.
Posted by rburke1 (anonymous) on July 24, 2008 at 9:18 a.m. (Suggest removal)
Asphalt has no tensil strength or the point at which a material can no longer maintain its structural integrity. Therefore, it is only as good as the base you put it on if you put it on properly. It doesn't marry with concrete very well because of the different expansions of the two materials. David G. is right to have a project representative on the job. The City is lucky to have David as their Engineer. Blain will do a good job, but, he will even do a better job when he knows he's being inspected. But, the public should know that an asphalt overlay is simply maintenance and not long term especially on arterial streets with high traffic. Those streets should be overlayed on 10 cycles as a minimum.
Posted by rburke1 (anonymous) on July 24, 2008 at 9:23 a.m. (Suggest removal)
One more comment then I'll shut up. Ride down Canal Street between Orleans and Jefferson. Blain recently put the asphalt on that street. Job well done.
Posted by grrbrts (anonymous) on July 24, 2008 at 10:09 a.m. (Suggest removal)
The problems that occur, when resurfacing some roads here about the Natchez area, does not rely totally upon the icing, but the cake. The cake being concrete. Concrete expands and contracts due to hot and cold climates. Thats why they were laid down in spacial slabs. Remember the caplunk-caplunk sounds given off by the front and rear tires of vehicles driving over these gaps? Most of that is due to the concrete having expanded, thus causing the matter between the slabs to be forced outward.
Posted by Hardcorps (anonymous) on July 24, 2008 at 12:04 p.m.
(This comment was removed by the site staff.)
Posted by blueeydlady101 (anonymous) on July 24, 2008 at 7:23 p.m. (Suggest removal)
This is great that you chose a local company. This will come in handy providing extra jobs for the unemployed people in the Natchez area.Thanks for helping the local people for a change.
Posted by erknee (anonymous) on July 24, 2008 at 8:16 p.m. (Suggest removal)
louisiana is cursed with a certain type soil, it is called buckshot. monroe city street program had alot of its streets crack also. swamp land, yes it is sad but true.
Posted by sammohon (anonymous) on July 24, 2008 at 10:41 p.m. (Suggest removal)
Richard...thanks, I was going to say the same.
Posted by texasranger (anonymous) on July 25, 2008 at 12:20 a.m. (Suggest removal)
Kool,hire somebody that has already layed it to Vidalia to come over to Natchez to set up shop. Maybe they will let Jesse James work for them. He might be a outlaw,but according to history he never lied about it. This bunch never ceases to amaze me..ha
They laugh all the way to the bank and back again. It,s a wonder we have streets at all,Check out the hole in the asphalt at Walgreens by East China,they have trash cans in it so you won,t lose your car if you run in the hole. They prob paved that lot a while back..lol. Knew a feller once that called such shananagins legalized theft,kinda like AT&T does to you on your phone bill with combined billing and a 16 page bill that my lawyer said is too complex for her. Yeah legalized theft that,s the business a lot of folks are in around here.
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