Port Orange City hopes to have Taylor road fixed by early January

Port Orange City Council hired the engineering company Mead & Hunt who announced at the December city council meeting that they are working alongside Volusia County to get the construction done before January 7^, 2019, which is when the High School is back in session from the holiday break.

To the frustrated public there seems to be a lack of progress on the small, but vital part of the road between Sweetwater and Yorktowne boulevards. The problem began back on December 3rd when the public was told by city officials that they expect the issue to be repaired by December 21^st.  Unfortunately, this has not happened and now for safety reasons the access bridge has also been closed. The bridge is highly used by students and parents as well as the teachers to get to and from the High School.

At the council meeting on December 18th, Brad Blais engineer from Mead & Hunt admitted that the project has taken longer than they originally planned. This is mostly due to the lack of information about how the bridge was built and that there was an unforeseen water leak.

Blais went on to say that the “The county wanted a plan, a written plan, signed a sealed by an engineer. So, we expedited that work into two phases.”

The two phases will be as follows: The first phase which, has already been approved, will have P&S Paving (the City’s contractors) removing the material and debris so that Mead & Hunt can provide the corrective measures to the road.

The plan for phase two has been submitted but has not yet been approved. Phase two will consist of bringing in a team of bridge engineers to make sure that the lifts, water wall and water main to the bridge are done correctly. The city officials are unclear of the total cost of the repairs at this time.

Blais told the council that “Everyone involved will most likely be working through Christmas, and If we can get everything done by the end of next week, then we can pour all the concrete prior to the next weekend. That seven day cure time will get us on track.” Blais also stated that “I think we’re on track to get there, If the weather is good and everything kind of proceeds as planned, we’ll make it.”

Although this mishap has been an unfortunate inconvenience the residences of Port Orange can take solace in that their water service has never been interrupted and no boil water notice was issued.