Residents of Columbus’ Edgewood neighborhood on the city’s South Side say they are unhappy with a city construction project that has left their properties damaged and their neighborhood marred.
At the center of the complaints residents talked with The Dispatch about is the city’s Markison Inflow Redirection project, an Environmental Protection Agency-required revamp of the sewer system that travels along Linwood Avenue and branches off into adjacent streets, according to the city’s website. Work on the project is being done by Complete General Construction, a city contractor.
The $30-million project involves installing a new stormwater system under the road to collect rainwater runoff to separate it from the sewage system. The neighborhood’s old system was a combined sewer, meaning both rainwater and sewage were collected in the same pipes. When it rained heavily, the rainwater and sewage would back up into the Scioto River, according to a city presentation on the project.
The Dispatch spoke with multiple Edgewood residents who had a lengthy list of grievances: the water lines to their properties were damaged, electrical cables were cut and left dangling, yards were left barren, construction equipment was left on private property, gouges were left in yards, a construction worker allegedly intimidated residents for their flags, and more.
At the forefront of residents’ efforts to get their complaints addressed is Ted Welch, who has lived in the neighborhood for 24 years. In early September, he hand-delivered 200 fliers to his neighbors, inviting them to a community meeting about the construction. Around forty of them showed up, he said.
“I don’t want (my neighbors) to be victims of a construction company that comes in and puts the shovel to the ground but does not replace or put the property back to its original state,” he said.
Welch said he’s heard from residents all over the neighborhood about damage they believe they suffered due to the project. One woman had her water line break right around when crews were working in front of her home. The contractor denied damaging her line, so she had to pay for over $4,000 of repairs herself, according to Welch.
He hasn’t been left untouched by the construction, either. His landscaping plants almost died due to dust kicked up by construction and his driveway shifted, leaving cracks.
Once, a construction foreman told Welch he was “unpatriotic” and “not a good U.S. citizen” for displaying an upside-down American flag outside his home in protest of the country’s current direction. That foreman also spoke to other neighbors about their flags, Welch said.
“He told me that they were glad that Biden and Obama got voted out and now we had a president that was going to clean up this country. And I’m just like, ‘Okay.’ I said, ‘I don’t need to discuss that, you know, I’m not speaking with you anymore,'” he said.
Evan Bell, a construction manager with Stantec, the company contracted to manage the project, said it was unusual for an employee to make those comments and it has been addressed with the employee.
“I don’t believe he’s on the job anymore,” he said,
Garrick Eshbach, who lives a few blocks away from Welch, said construction crews left ladders in his yard and a portable restroom on his lawn, destroyed his driveway and damaged his water heater, causing his upstairs bathroom to be “destroyed.”
Now, he wants to see the city hold its contractors accountable, something they haven’t been doing, he said.
“This affects people’s lives, and the city should be more coherent about its approach to these projects if this is going to be the damage,” Esbach said. “We bought these properties. We stayed in Columbus. We are the people funding the city.”
What is the city doing?
Bell said the work had damaged “a lot of stuff,” but they would go back through and make repairs near the end of the project, which is slated for completion in December.
“It was a pretty invasive process. So, there’s definitely a lot of impacts. Nobody likes it, but you know, it was what it was. So, we’re in the process of putting everything back together now,” he said.
Residents report damage to him all the time, which he adds to a list of repairs they will need to do before the project is finished, Bell said. He said he doesn’t brush off residents’ concerns; some of them just may not be addressed immediately, or some complaints may not be for damage caused by the construction.
“You can imagine putting in a large pipe, you know, almost 30 ft deep down a residential neighborhood. So, it’s really impossible to do that without disrupting people’s way of lives. So, we’re all aware of that,” he said.
Columbus City Councilmember Lourdes Barroso de Padilla attended Welch’s recent community meeting. She said she’s been working with Columbus Water and Power to address the residents’ concerns and get their properties repaired.
Going forward, City Council will be looking at potential law or contract changes that would increase the city’s accountability for its contractors.
“One thing we need to get better at as a city, and I think, especially as a growing city like Columbus, where it feels like construction is happening at every corner, I think having the accountability of contractors and ensuring that contractors, again, are respectful of neighborhoods, respectful of residents, and doing a good job,” she said.
George Zonders, a spokesperson for Columbus Water and Power, said the department appreciated the patience of everyone impacted by the project.
“Everyone involved has been working to minimize the inconvenience of excavating and installing large infrastructure in this neighborhood — and as construction moves to remediation in the coming weeks, we will follow up on any outstanding concerns between our customers and the contractor,” Zonders said.
Barroso de Padilla said residents who need to report damage can do so via the city’s 311 system.
Transportation and Neighborhoods Reporter Nathan Hart can be reached at NHart@dispatch.com, at @NathanRHart on X and at nathanhart.dispatch.com on Bluesky.
This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: City construction project leaves some South Side residents fuming over property damage
Reporting by Nathan Hart, Columbus Dispatch / The Columbus Dispatch
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