Work on the town center sewer and treatment plant continued this week, more than 10 days beyond the original June 30 deadline set for the project last fall.
And this week, at their regular team meeting in Town Hall, project engineers said they expected the completion date to slip to Aug. 6. That’s one day before the state Department of Environmental Protection is scheduled to begin its two-week test of the system, a step that’s required before it can issue the town an operating license.
Jim Ricciardi, owner of Ricciardi Brothers, the town’s contractor, blamed the delay on the late delivery of components for the Massachusetts Avenue treatment plant. Some are still on “backorder” and overdue by nine weeks, he told the Press this week. He and other town officials, including Town Administrator Tim Bragan, will meet this week to confirm the date. But the “hard” date on everyone’s calendar, he said, is Aug. 27, the day on which Harvard schools reopen for the fall.
Among the missing components is a master control panel for the plant. But project managers seem frustrated by last-minute design issues as well. At the Wednesday team meeting, for example, plant operator Jim Arthur of Weston and Samson argued—over the objections of plant designer Wayne Perry of Norfolk Ram—that a sludge recycling pipe needed to be relocated. Later, Town Administrator Bragan chastised the group for failing to settle on a plan for the plant driveway, whose grade, as designed, is too acute for the trucks that will use it.
“We’ve got to be able to get [pump] trucks in there. It’s got to work when it’s done,” he said with an angry tone. “This is one issue I need done now because it’s going to delay the project. I don’t care what it takes…It’s gone on for a month now, and it’s got to be solved.”
Note: In the print version of this article (Harvard Press, July 13, 2012), plant operator Jim Arthur of Weston and Samson was incorrectly identified as Jim Allen of Wesson and Sampson.
