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8.15.04 City allows slow-motion road work by Joseph Morton and Michael O'Connor, Omaha World-Herald Ed Morris has lost a third of his convenience-store customers since a contractor began widening a section of Fort Street. Traffic negotiates construction along West Dodge Road near the Interstate 680 interchange. He has put up with more than two years of orange barrels, barricades, dust, noise and traffic snarls. So have an estimated 16,100 motorists who use Fort from 108th to 120th Street every day. It's only 12 blocks. Just one mile. But Fort is in its third year of construction. Yet the City of Omaha considers the project on schedule. How is that possible? The answer lies in the city's handling of road projects. Throughout Omaha, street construction drags. And it's not just because of our cold winters, wet springs or this exceptionally rainy summer. In a four-month investigation, The World-Herald found there is much Omaha can do to speed the pace of road construction. The problems are basic. The potential solutions are used successfully elsewhere. Three man-made issues conspire against motorists: Contractors take on numerous projects instead of assigning crews to finish a few jobs as quickly as possible. They juggle workers and equipment among sites for their own efficiency. The result is frustratingly familiar to Omaha drivers - long stretches of barricaded roadway with relatively few workers.   The removal and relocation of utility lines are often poorly coordinated. Contractors, utility representatives and city officials talk. But no one takes charge to ensure schedules are set and deadlines are met. The result is that contractors wait while utility crews fit in road projects between other types of work. City government allows it all. It treats the big public utilities with deference to their status as separate governmental agencies. It rarely gives contractors deadline dates for completion, incentives to hurry or punishments for slow-motion progress. The result is smaller work crews, fewer hours on the job. The newspaper in June, July and August checked on the size of work crews at 10 road projects run by the city and five others in the Omaha area run by the Nebraska Department of Roads. A total of 113 checks were made mornings to midafternoons during seven weekdays. There was no significant rain during or just before any of the checks. At state projects, The World-Herald saw an average of 16 workers at each job site each day. At city projects, the average was just eight workers. Everyone involved in city projects is well-meaning. There is no one behind the orange barrels snickering at the detours, the bumper-to-bumper traffic, the make-you-late-for-work waits. Utility representatives say they're doing what's asked of them by the Omaha Public Works Department. City officials and contractors attribute many of their own actions to trying to hold down costs -- to protect the taxpayer. But the city's cost-consciousness is simplistic. It focuses on bid prices, making no effort to consider the costs associated with each additional day a road is closed. Those costs come in the form of city inspectors to monitor progress; rented barricades, barrels and cones; lost commerce to adjacent businesses; related lost tax revenue; and the lost time of bottle-necked drivers. Without weighing such factors, it's no wonder that speedy completion of the road nearest you rarely reaches the top of the agenda. That could change soon. Mayor Mike Fahey has formed a task force to look at why Omaha road projects take so long. Its report is expected next month. City officials already have acknowledged to The World-Herald that some changes probably are necessary. It needs to be emphasized that Midlands weather is also an antagonist - especially this year. You can't pave over soupy mud. It normally rains nine days in Omaha in July. Last month it rained 19 days. It's also important to note that road construction is a sign of community progress, and that surrounding homeowners and businesses tend to benefit the most once the work is done. On the other hand, unnecessary delays extend the dangers inherent in construction zones. Road work contributes to deadly accidents. It also exposes the city to legal liabilities. The Fort Street convenience store owner, Morris, is suing the city over lost business. He says he has had to lay off employees and that the Fort construction has cost him about $332,000 in profits. Welcome to Orange Omaha. "The city looks like it's broken up everywhere," said motorist Jerry Grunkin. "Whatever street you take -- north or south, east or west." At 144th and Harrison Streets, residents were told work probably would be completed in July. Homeowners now wonder if it will be done this year. When opened, Harrison there carries about 19,400 motorists daily. Work on a new culvert at 77th Street and Western Avenue was to be done Aug. 1. But the road is far from finished, and three schools within five blocks are poised to open for classes. Along West Center Road near 72nd Street, an estimated 28,650 motorists daily had to deal with barricades in April, May and half of June even though work on the street was done. Traffic lanes remained closed for the safety of crews working on sidewalks and the median. At the Shark Club, a bar and restaurant near 72nd and West Center, lunch business was down at least 20 percent until June, when two lanes of traffic opened each way on 72nd Street. People in nearby offices had found it took too long to drive through the construction, said manager Donnie Jones. "They didn't want to fight the traffic." More than 50,000 drivers use that stretch of 72nd daily. The project started in January 2003. On 108th Street near West Maple Road, the barricades have coincided with a 25 percent drop in walk-in business at Hairmasters. Customers just don't want the construction-zone hassles, said stylist Lisa Zupan, who works on commission. "It's been pretty dead in here." Folks near Fort Street see it as a fiasco. New concrete cracked and needs to be replaced. A man was killed in an accident with a forklift. The contractor did virtually nothing on the project last year in April, May and June. It's shocking to people that the city says Fort is on schedule. "That's crazy," said Mike Walker, who owns the building that houses the bar Boondockers at 120th and Fort Streets. "There hasn't even been a schedule." Fort is an extreme example of a perennial problem. Omaha's slow-motion road work is a favorite topic around the water-cooler and over the back fence. It's the subject of more than a handful of jokes. But it doesn't have to be. Today and over the next three days, The World-Herald will introduce you to contractors, utility crews and city public works officials, show how their interests can conflict with those of motorists, and highlight alternatives that could speed the pace of construction. "Everybody wonders why they start a project, dig a hole and put up barricades, and then you don't see any action for two weeks," said Bob Struble, who lives in the Westgate subdivision near 72nd Street and West Center Road. "We just assume they know what they are doing." Click here to go to the top of this page

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