LIVERMORE FALLS — Selectmen signed a second no-fault agreement Monday related to the Route 4 construction project.

Both Jay and Livermore Falls learned after the road was paved that there were some minor sags in the new sewer lines installed during a Maine Department of Transportation road reconstruction project. About 1.1 miles on Route 4 from Bridge Street in Livermore Falls to Pineau Street in Jay in 2011 and 2012 were done.

The two towns had new sewer lines installed and the Livemore Falls Water District had new water lines installed at that time.

Some of the sags have been fixed. The state does not want the newly paved road dug up for five years, unless it is done to a whole section of the road and follows state standards.

The state does not want the road dug up in a trench-like fashion to ensure it doesn’t fail prematurely, Tom Stevens, a DOT project manager, said last week. He has been involved in the talks with all parties about the sags.

It is standard procedure to hold a retainer on a contracted project, Stevens said.

Pratt & Sons Inc. of Minot won the contract to do the reconstruction project with a bid of $6.3 million in the spring of 2011.

If the sags had to be repaired the cost of everything involved, including repaving, was valued at $150,000, Stevens said.

All parties involved decided they wouldn’t dig up the area, he said. The towns’ and Water District projects piggybacked on the state project, he said. He, along with the town managers, have said they consider the sags minor in the scope of the project.

The state held on to $180,000 at the towns’ request until just recently, Stevens said. A request has been made to release all but $60,000 to the contractor because it is known that the scope of repairs have gone into a monitoring situation and the parties are very close to an agreement, he said.

There are still a few outstanding issues, but the biggest one was the sewer line sags. The project is under warranty for one year from the time the state accepts the project. That warranty runs into 2014.

Livermore Falls selectmen signed its second no-fault agreement, this one with Pratt & Sons, on Monday night.

Jay selectmen have not signed it yet.

The contractor agreed to repair the inverts at no cost to the town, and that work has been done, Livermore Falls Town Manager Kristal Flagg said. They will coordinate with the five-year quarterly closed circuit video monitoring with Ted Berry Co. of Livermore.

If there are known sags of build-up, that area would be repaired by the contractor and paid by the contractor, she said.

Pavement restoration costs would be split 60 percent by the town and 40 percent by the contractor, if repairs are within the five-year period, Flagg said. If the second quarterly closed video monitoring reveals no build-up in the sagged sections, 50 percent of the remaining retainage shall be released to the contractor. After the fourth quarter monitoring to be done by December reveals no additional build-up in the sag sections, the remaining retainage shall be released to the contractor.

Flagg said Pratt & Sons have been great to work with.

“This is really not their fault. They were given the OK,” Flagg said, to finish the road.

Selectmen in both towns previously signed a no-fault agreement with Ted Berry. That contractor plans to monitor lines and flush them, if necessary, for five years without cost to the town. The company also refunded the money the towns paid to have the lines videoed.

The engineering firm and Wright-Pierce, and both towns are participating in the no-fault agreements.

dperry@sunjournal.com

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