Quincy attempts to manage old infrastructure

2/29/08The City of Quincy has been trying for years to deal with its aging infrastructure but it has not been easy. The four-year-old Pavement Management Plan (PMP), which aims at prioritizing road pavement and water main repair without political influences, has had its supporters, but "no system is perfect" said City Pavement Engineer Joe Guarino.

Guarino and City Water Main Engineer, Bob Gacicia, are in charge of trying to implement the PMP.

Some may be skeptical of the plan after an unforeseen $1.5m investigation and cleanup exposed two long forgotten 11,000-gallon oil tanks leaking on the new Quincy High School construction site.

"That was a unique situation," said City Plumbing and Gas Inspector Bob Pecoraro. Very rarely does the city shutdown an entire street, he said.

They try to methodically upgrade the city's infrastructure, but it "is over a hundred years old," Gacicia said.

Furthermore, Guarino admits the PMP is not always followed. Sometimes new gas mains are installed over existing water mains that need to be replaced. And roads that are repaved sometimes have a lower priority than others, in the engineers' opinion.

"Politics and priority seem to influence each other," Guarino said.

Ward 3 Councillor Kevin Coughlin agrees with the city engineers' "methodical fashion," but he admits there is also a human element involved.

"We are the first line of defense with respect to constituent impact," Coughlin said.

He mentioned two instances of house fires on Carlson and Park Streets, where water mains that fed water to the nearby hydrants were leaking. No one was seriously hurt, but the houses sustained serious damage due, in part, to inadequate pressure, Coughlin said.

The water mains have since been replaced, he said.

For the most part the politicians and engineers remain on the same page when it comes to the PMP.

"It doesn't make sense to repave a street before replacing a water main from 1898 underneath it," Coughlin said. This will just end up costing the city more taxpayer dollars, he said.

The PMP is a precaution. Quincy is learning from the City of Boston's multibillion-dollar Boston Harbor cleanup, Coughlin said.

The city has spent $25m replacing storm drains along Wollaston Beach among other drainage corrections as part of the PMP's sewer rehabilitation project, according to the PMP document on the City of Quincy website.

Furthermore the document said drainage correction on Carlisle Street has been made and a new pump station has been installed in North Quincy to alleviate chronic problems in the area.

"It is better to think in 500-year cycles though the average human only lives roughly 80 years," Guarino said.

Thinking this way is more cost efficient in the long run though people now may not be around, he said.

In the case of Boston, Guarino said it is too political. They have a pavement plan as well but often make popularity their priority, he said.

Councillor Coughlin said there needs to be a "cerebral side" to road and water main repair to not follow in the City of Boston's footsteps. But just seeing the engineering side is not seeing the whole picture, he said.

"It would be naive to suggest that there is not a political component.