Town Center Grand Opening May Be Delayed By Months While City/Contractor Repair Poorly Designed Streets
Rockville Town Center’s May 2007 grand opening may be delayed for at least two months as the city and its contractor scramble to repair Town Center’s crumbling streets. Known by City Manager, Scott J. Ullery, as earlier as fall 2006, Town Center cobblestone roads, walkways and plazas will need to be replaced. The affected area includes Maryland Avenue at Town Square Plaza and all of Town Square Plaza, which borders the new Rockville Library.
The underlyin
g problem is a lack of drainage due to poor design. Apparently, little if any drainage exists under the paving stones, which allows water to collect. The water freezes and refreezes pushing th
e stones up. Additionally, the soft roadbed, again due to poor drainage, allows vehicles to further warp road surfaces. In parts of Maryland Avenue the road is more than one foot higher or lower than design specifications and gives the appearance of the surface of the moon.
According to an
unnamed Whiting Turner source, the contractor that installed thousands of paving stones throughout the town square area, all paving stones will need to be removed, the roadbed fully excavated and a drainage system installed. After a drainage system is created, the process will be reversed by relaying the roadbed and then re-installing paving stones.
According to the Whiting Turner source, the cost of all repairs may exceed $1M, with t
he whole process taking at least two months. Whiting Turner is insistent that it is not responsible for the cost of repairs as the plan was approved by Rockville City Manager, Scott J. Ullery and Director of Community Planning and Development Services, Arthur D. Chambers. Also, months before the roadwork commenced, Whiting Turner engineers urged Ullery to consider a drainage system, but Ullery decided to waive the system, due to budgetary issues and the fact that Town Center was already behind schedule. The road and its substructure (or lack thereof) was inspected by City of Rockville code enforcement officials, who granted final approval, further exonerating Whiting Turner and placing responsibility on the city and costs to be footed by Rockville taxpayers.
Ullery and lame-duck Mayor, Larry Giammo, currently formulating the best spin to put on the impending crisis, are very concerned about possible legal action by Town Center’s retailers, whose businesses will be severally impacted by the delayed grand opening. Giammo’s decision not to run in November for a forth consecutive term may, in part, be due to his foreknowledge of Town Center’s upcoming scandal, added to the fact that only one quarter of Town Center’s condominiums have sold (the Gazette reports one third have sold, real estate records indicate 25%).
It is currently not known if council woman and newly declared mayoral candidate Susan Hoffman has culpability in the scandal, but her campaign will have its hands full in addressing concerns about Ms. Hoffman’s close affiliation and unquestioning support of City Manager, Scott Ullery... Stay tuned.
Rockville Town Center’s May 2007 grand opening may be delayed for at least two months as the city and its contractor scramble to repair Town Center’s crumbling streets. Known by City Manager, Scott J. Ullery, as earlier as fall 2006, Town Center cobblestone roads, walkways and plazas will need to be replaced. The affected area includes Maryland Avenue at Town Square Plaza and all of Town Square Plaza, which borders the new Rockville Library.
The underlyin
g problem is a lack of drainage due to poor design. Apparently, little if any drainage exists under the paving stones, which allows water to collect. The water freezes and refreezes pushing th
e stones up. Additionally, the soft roadbed, again due to poor drainage, allows vehicles to further warp road surfaces. In parts of Maryland Avenue the road is more than one foot higher or lower than design specifications and gives the appearance of the surface of the moon.According to an
unnamed Whiting Turner source, the contractor that installed thousands of paving stones throughout the town square area, all paving stones will need to be removed, the roadbed fully excavated and a drainage system installed. After a drainage system is created, the process will be reversed by relaying the roadbed and then re-installing paving stones.According to the Whiting Turner source, the cost of all repairs may exceed $1M, with t
he whole process taking at least two months. Whiting Turner is insistent that it is not responsible for the cost of repairs as the plan was approved by Rockville City Manager, Scott J. Ullery and Director of Community Planning and Development Services, Arthur D. Chambers. Also, months before the roadwork commenced, Whiting Turner engineers urged Ullery to consider a drainage system, but Ullery decided to waive the system, due to budgetary issues and the fact that Town Center was already behind schedule. The road and its substructure (or lack thereof) was inspected by City of Rockville code enforcement officials, who granted final approval, further exonerating Whiting Turner and placing responsibility on the city and costs to be footed by Rockville taxpayers.Ullery and lame-duck Mayor, Larry Giammo, currently formulating the best spin to put on the impending crisis, are very concerned about possible legal action by Town Center’s retailers, whose businesses will be severally impacted by the delayed grand opening. Giammo’s decision not to run in November for a forth consecutive term may, in part, be due to his foreknowledge of Town Center’s upcoming scandal, added to the fact that only one quarter of Town Center’s condominiums have sold (the Gazette reports one third have sold, real estate records indicate 25%).
It is currently not known if council woman and newly declared mayoral candidate Susan Hoffman has culpability in the scandal, but her campaign will have its hands full in addressing concerns about Ms. Hoffman’s close affiliation and unquestioning support of City Manager, Scott Ullery... Stay tuned.
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*Click on images for larger view.
8 comments:
The photos do not show the extent of the failure. Asphalt patches have been laid down to fill in mini-sinkholes near the library "crosswalk.
If this is an accurate portrayal of the situation in Rockville Town Center--then not only is Susan(Ms. No-Cost-Overruns) Hoffman campaign for mayor would certainly be endangered (good). But the reputation and faith in our planning department as well as in Mr. Ullery as a City Manager leaves us, the residents of Rockville, feeling like our tax dollars are getting flushed down various developers toilets.
This is outrageous. Why does Ullery still have his job? Why do Giammo and Hoffman support him so vigorously? Why do I (a Rockville taxpayer) have to pay for Ullery’s incompetence?!
Dear Rockville Voter,
Thank you for this excellent public service! As a former city employee I can tell you that Mr. Know-it-all Ullery got the city into to this. I know for a fact that he told Whiting Turner engineers to stick it, when they recommended the drainage system. I heard Scott’s rants as he yelled at city employees, who offered other viewpoints and was subject them myself. Just a little hint – You may want to look into Ullery’s relationships with certain developers and favors done by them for Ullery personally. This is just the tip of the iceberg.
Sincerely,
Now Gone
Are there any liability issues if a pedestrian trips over uneven paying stones? Could they sue the city?
Thanks for the info… No offence or anything, but why do we, the citizens, have to hear about this on a blog? Why didn’t Giammo or city staff break the news? Is there any oversight of these people???
"Now Gone" makes some serious allegations, and they ought to be investigated. The City taxpayers should not be left holding this bag. By the way, does the City Manager's contract have any kind of a golden parachute that he gets upon termination, let the politicians beware, don't add insult to injury by letting him cash in on that when he is fired for this gross professional incompetence.
It appears that there is more to these cracks in the pavement than meets the "eye". Aside from that, whomsoever is/are writer(s) of this blog is an excellent writer/reporter and reminds me of Woodward/Bernstein's "Deep Throat?" Keep up the good work,.
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