Oct 19, 2009 10:28 pm US/Central
Are Workers Creating Or Repairing Pavement Cracks?
CHICAGO (CBS) ―
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A northwest suburban family was shocked to see a road repair crew that seemed to be creating cracks in the road rather than repairing them.
CBS
It was obvious to anyone who drives that there were a lot of desperately needed road repairs to be done this summer. But when a northwest suburban family looked out their front door, they were shocked to see a road repair crew that seemed to be creating cracks in the road to make money. They called CBS 2 Investigator Pam Zekman with videotaped evidence of the suspicious cracks.
Under a contract with the Illinois Department of Transportation, workers from a private construction company were supposed to repair cracks along a four-and-a-half mile stretch of a road in Arlington Heights.
"This was a nice road until they came and tore it up with all these cracks just two days ago," said John Elleson, a Protestant minister whose church and family residence fronts a portion of the road under repair.
He pointed to a crack down the middle of the road and said, "There was no crack there. I couldn't believe what I was seeing."
His son Nathan videotaped some of it. The videotape shows two locations where the crews appear to be routing out existing cracks.
Elleson said that realistically the road probably had a few cracks. But Elleson pointed to one spot on the videotape where a worker placed his electric router and noted, "There is nothing there. Look at that."
Nonetheless the worker made a three-quarter inch wide cut along the width of the lane.
And at a second location, you can see a short crack that Elleson explains was created as an extension of a cut made by workers in the adjacent lane.
"They created this when they did this side," Elleson said.
The workers are supposed to widen and deepen existing cracks, so that others who follow behind them can fill up the openings. The number of feet filled in is measured because that, in part, is how the contractor is paid.
"It's shocking that someone would do such a thing just to get paid a few dollars," Elleson said.
The Ellesons said they reported what they saw to IDOT, but got no answers.
In spite of the videotape, state officials deny that any of the cracks were created by the contractor. But after our inquiry, their engineers determined that there were not as many cracks as they thought there were when the contract was awarded.
That means that the total amount the state will pay on the original $312,000 contract will be $158,000.
"We're saving taxpayers well over $100,000 on this, which is actually a good thing," said IDOT spokeswoman Marisa Kollias.
When told of the savings, John Elleson said, "Really. That's unreal."
And somehow gratifying, "to somehow save the taxpayers $100,000," Elleson said.
Elleson said it raises questions about other projects.
Kollias says this project was needed to increase the lifespan of the four-and-a-half mile run of road. It was resurfaced just four years ago, but IDOT insists it had a lot of cracks.
"The contractors know there's inspectors out there every day," Kollias said. "So there's just no way that we would go and create the work, and waste taxpayers' dollars."
When asked about the shots in the video where you don't see cracks, Kollias said, "I think you see enough cracks. I do."
"All I know is all those cracks weren't there," Elleson said. "And it's a worse road today than when they started."
(© MMIX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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