Capital Projects staff told the Public Utility Board that contractors discovered previously unidentified or shallow water and sewer infrastructure during construction of several street projects, and that the city is processing additional change orders to replace the aging facilities.

A senior project manager explained the issues arose on streets including Sycamore, Austin and Walnut, where crews found old or shallow sewer and water pipes not identified in the design phase. Staff said the city elected to replace or lower those utilities rather than pave over them to avoid leaving new roadways over aging infrastructure. The manager described the work as lowering lines to avoid future conflicts with subgrade treatment and road reconstruction.

Board members asked staff to include brief descriptions in future agenda backup so members could see reasons for large contingency use. Staff agreed and said they would provide greater detail on line-item change-order descriptions going forward.

The meeting record includes a staff-stated additional change-order amount of about $3,210,000 for these discovered conditions; staff offered to provide more descriptive backup on the agenda for future meetings.