Fire hydrant snafu plagues Hwy. LL

Two fire hydrants installed along Highway LL on Port Washington’s north side during a project that closed the road for months are sticking out like sore thumbs — literally.

The hydrants were set closer to the highway than they should have been, so city crews have marked them with barricades to alert motorists to their presence.

One hydrant is about six feet off the pavement, City Engineer Roger Strohm said, while the other is about nine feet off the road.

The hydrants were installed when the city extended water and sewer services into the land annexed for the Vantage Data Centers Lighthouse Campus — a project that also included paving the roadway.

Strohm said he’s looking into why the hydrants were placed as close to the road as they were, adding they probably should have been placed about 10 feet farther from the highway.

“It was probably a combination of things,” he said, such as an error in the design or engineering of the project, a construction staking issue or someone not reading the plans correctly. And, he noted, the project inspector didn’t catch the issue immediately either.

Part of the problem was likely the design, he added.

“I think even if they put it where it was designed to be, I think it’s still too close (to the road),” he said.

Strohm said he didn’t notice the problem immediately after the highway was paved in May, adding about a month later a street department crew member brought it to his attention.

“Once you see it, it sticks out like a sore thumb,” he said.

He called the Ozaukee County Highway Department, which paved the roadway, and Vinton Construction, the contractor, to try and track down the cause.

“There are probably four or five parties involved in this,” Strohm said.

He’s working with the contractors to not only establish how the error happened but who will fix it, he said.

Strohm said it’s likely the cost of moving the hydrants about 10 feet to their proper place will be split among the various parties.

But, he added, the work won’t be done at the city’s cost, noting Vantage is paying the final cost for the utility and road work.

Strohm said the hydrants have to be moved before winter, adding he believes the work will be done by the end of October.

He added that the road probably won’t have to be closed when the work is done.

“I expect we’ll just be working in the gravel portion,” he said.

The water will have to be shut off, but the only customer that should affect is Vantage, he noted.

And because the work is on the shoulder of the road, Strohm said, there likely won’t need to be any additional paving done.