The City Council voted April 21 to approve time and funding adjustments to the long-running Port Acres drainage improvement project after contractors uncovered unrecorded utilities and other conditions that paused construction.

The council approved change order requests presented by staff that add substantial calendar time and money to the project. City staff and the project engineer told the council the work has encountered three previously unrecorded pipelines in the FM 365 work area and an in-path 16-inch water main that was buried where the project documents indicated it would not be. The engineer said the as-built plans and the city GIS located the 16-inch main differently than where crews later found it in excavation.

The city's project team said the newly identified pipelines require coordinated removal or relocation, specialized handling and environmental controls because of their materials and ownership. The council heard that the pipeline removals and relocations and associated contractual work increased the project cost by several hundred thousand dollars and produced delays.

Council members pressed staff on the causes of delay and the city's oversight. Councilman Doucette said the work had been visible to residents for months with little activity and expressed frustration about repeated extensions. City staff said the project manager and the engineer maintain daily logs; because the project uses federal funding, the city and its grant manager consolidated time-extension requests to avoid repeated monthly submissions to FEMA and to present a single, documented justification.

Engineer and staff responses summarized the change order components as: an adjustment for earlier value-engineering time changes, additional calendar days tied to utility relocations, and a projection for rain days based on historical weather and project schedule. Council members asked for the construction manager's daily reports and a clearer schedule for completion; staff said they would provide the project documentation and explore adding a 90-day reporting cadence for large, federally funded projects so the council receives earlier notice of emerging problems.

Why this matters: The Port Acres project is a multi-million-dollar, federally-funded drainage program intended to reduce localized flooding. Delays and additional change orders affect timing for drainage improvements and the city's ability to draw down federal funds without jeopardizing reimbursement. Council members asked staff to improve transparency and to provide documentary evidence of the delay causes.

Ending: Staff said they would provide the construction manager's daily reports and the project record to council members; the city manager and city attorney will work to add more regular performance reporting to future large procurement agreements.