It’s not easy keeping a major utility project on time and on budget. The Flandreau City Council heard about those challenges at its June 2 meeting.
Project engineer Shane Waterman of IMEG, the company overseeing the project, told the council that the latest challenge was that not all the water shut-offs on Park Avenue between Wind Street and Prairie are working. He said the company is working to figure out a way to get those shut-offs to work.
If it’s needed, he said, a sub consultant could put in temporary valves.

“We’re going to exhaust all our means and measures” before adding to the cost of the project, Waterman told the council.
Once the utility work is done in that area, Waterman said, a subcontractor will be in right away to fix the streets. “We won’t wait long after the utilities are done.”
Waterman said that recent rains have put the project only a couple of days behind schedule. It may be because of those rains that work on the project was conducted on a Sunday.
Waterman said the contractor will be made aware that weekend work has to come with the permission of the council.
“Sunday’s kind of a day off for the whole neighborhood,” Waterman said. “Somebody just got ambitious.”