Construction on a massive underground water tank near Murdock Park was close to being finished, but now the structure is being dug out and completely rebuilt
Lafayette.
A massive underground water tank must be replaced after it was damaged beyond repair.
News 18's joe paul has spoken to the mayor, the waterworks superintendent and the contractor.
He joins us live at the site of the demolition to tell us what went wrong.
Joe?
You know the feeling.
You're about to finish up a big project at home or work when you realize something's not right and you have to start over.
That's what happened here at murdock park.
Crews were about a month away from finishing work on this huge water tank.
But now they have to rip it out and start over.
<nat pop a massive underground tank was close to being finished near murdock park.
And ron hurst with lafayette waterworks says it would have held a huge amount of drinking water.
"300-foot diameter tank, it's about 30 feet deep and it will hold three million gallons of water."
But piers driven deep in the ground failed to hold the tank in place.
Extreme groundwater pressure caused the tank to float and damaged it beyond repair.
Says lafayette mayor tony roswarski.
"so bowen stepped up and did the right thing and agreed to take out the entire tank and rebuild it from the ground up again at no cost to the city."
Bowen engineering is the contractor hired for the job.
The firm also built the even bigger storm water runoff tank near canal road.
But all that's left near murdock park are piles of rubble and rebar.
"they're digging out the floor, they'll take the piers out and they are totally rebuilding a brand new project for us."
The project began in late 2019 and will now take at least another year before it's finished.
Hurst says the tank and booster station will serve as a backup water supply "this is a redundancy to a booster station at columbian park that was built in 1875.
It's still in active service, it works great.
This is just redundant just in case that one ever has a problem where we need to take it out of service."
I spoke with bowen's operations manager chris maes.
He says the company is still working through want went wrong and the full extent of the rebuild.
Bowen will offer an explanation during the november 17th board of works meeting.
The board will also look over a new contract laying out the updated timeline.
Reporting live in lafayette, joe paul, news 18.
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