Shades Beach Harbor to be fixed...

Engineering firms to pay Harborcreek Township $900,000 in Shades Beach settlement

By KEVIN FLOWERS, Erie Times-News
kevin.flowers@timesnews.com



Two engineering firms have agreed to pay Harborcreek Township a collective $900,000 to settle a lawsuit over offshore improvements at Shades Beach that the township said were faulty.


The three-member Harborcreek Township Board of Supervisors unanimously approved the settlement agreement at a meeting Wednesday morning.


According to the agreement, Urban Engineers, of Erie, will pay the township $897,500, and W.F. Baird & Associates, of Fitchburg, Wis., a coastal engineering firm that also worked on the project, will pay $2,500.


The payments are required within 45 days, and neither company admits "liability of any sort," according to the settlement agreement.


"We're very pleased with (the settlement)," Harborcreek Supervisor Timothy May said. "A settlement was the best move for us."


Erie lawyer Paul Susko, who represented Urban Engineers in the case, could not be reached for comment.


The lawsuit was filed by Harborcreek Township in July 2009, two years after construction of Shades Beach Harbor was completed in May 2007. The public park is north of Route 5, along the Lake Erie shoreline.


In the lawsuit, Harborcreek Township said that engineers created "an inadequate, improper and deficient design and specification for Shades Beach Harbor."


As a result of that design, the township said, it was forced to spend more than $75,000 to dredge the basin of Shades Beach Harbor, and could have to spend more than $2 million to replace or repair breakwalls, sidewalks, fishing platforms, ramps and docks.


The suit also claimed that the elevation of the offshore improvements resulted in ramp angles that were out of compliance with engineering standards.


The $900,000 settlement will be used "for the rebuild and repair" of those shoreline features, Harborcreek Supervisor Dean Pepicello said.


Harborcreek Township agreed in April 2004 to pay Urban Engineers $25,500 to design the offshore improvements.

It's a nice clean launch, but certainly could use some improvement in regards to water depth. I have a few scars on my little rig to prove it!

ORIGINAL: spoonchucker

"Then again, there is no money in doing things right the first time. Gotta love capitalism..."

In this case, because the system worked, there was much more money in "doing things right the first time". As I read it, Urban Engineers is out close to $850,000.

Though in general your statement could be accurate. In many cases ( particularly defense contractors ), the same company that got paid for doing it wrong ( without penalty ), gets paid again for doing it over. Under the arguement that they are the only ones "capable of doing it right"

Same occurs to a degree in the private sector as well. A common comment among some of my co-workers at my last place of employment, was. " I get paid the same for doing it wrong, as I do for doing it right, and I get overtime for doing it over"

More like their insurance is out $897,500, just below their $1 million cap for Errors and Omissions.

Wonder if they ever asked the boaters that use it what kind of "improvements" that they would like to see?

Ive only seen that launch once....Id hate to try to get my boat back in there on a day that gets nasty...