Gas leaks, scratched cars, “intolerable” noise and other troubles have left residents of a Kingsville street fuming at “botched” roadworks.
A Maribyrnong council contractor began rehabilitation works in Wales Street in February this year, including reconstruction of the bluestone kerb, upgrade of drainage and road re-sheeting.
But residents say after six months of mud, dust and loss of parking they are fed up with the works, which were supposed to have been finished by April.
Wales Street resident Dianne Ferrara said the works have been a disaster, with a litany of blunders pushing people to the end of their tether.
“It’s just a series of botches. My car and other cars have been scratched. There was a leaking gas pipe left unattended – imagine if someone had come along with a cigarette?
“I was told that they had to redo a section because they had miscalculated by about 500mm.”
Ms Ferrara said there was also no sense of urgency about the works being completed.
“They kept disappearing off to other jobs and nothing would happen for weeks,” she said.
“Needless to say we are beyond frustrated, we are putting in a report to the Ombudsman.”
Other residents have raised concerns about excessive mud, dust, noise, the quality of the works and damage to their property.
Council’s director of infrastructure services, Sunil Bhalla, said the lengthy delays were created by the amount of rock encountered during construction and works to preserve of nature strip trees.
“The completion of the project has also been delayed as some sections were not completed to our satisfaction and needed to be replaced by the contractor,” he said.
“We expect this to be completed in two weeks’ time.”
Ms Ferrara said the situation raises questions about council’s process for contracting out work.
But Mr Bhalla said the contractor was employed following a confidential competitive tender process.
He said residents were notified of timeframe adjustments via letter drops and door-knocking.
