Source: http://www.dailyfreeman.com, January 9, 2017
By: Paul Kirby
Residents near the former Washington Avenue sinkhole are suing the city and construction firms for damage allegedly done to their properties in the course of remediation work.
The lawsuit — filed in state Supreme Court in Ulster County — claims similar damages to the properties of all of the plaintiffs.
Repair work, according to the complaint, caused “significant structural damage” on the property of Jessica Price and Jason Selden at 92 Washington Ave., including “major cracks in basement, shifting off of the concrete slab, concrete blocks structurally challenged, buckling of flooring, bowing of exterior wood, and lost landscaping,” among other things.
The suit claims that the property of City Planner Suzanne Cahill and her husband, Michael, of 104 Washington Ave., suffered similar damage, including “major cracks throughout the exterior and interior, shifting of moldings and floor boards, damage to basement wall, doors not latching or closing properly, damage to heating and cooling system, and lost garden,” among other things.
Claiming similar damages are plaintiffs Stuart and Elizabeth Smedes of 98 Washington Ave., and William H. Smith of 88 Washington Ave.
The suit names as defendants the city of Kingston and GEA Engineering, Mueser Rutledge Consulting Engineers and GEO-Solutions Inc., contractors who helped design and implement the sinkhole repair.
The lawsuit does not name a specific amount that the residents are seeking.
Mayor Steve Noble could not be reached for comment, but the mayor’s spokeswoman, Megan Weiss, issued a statement by email late Monday afternoon saying that the city, following advice of the city Corporation Counsel’s Office, will not comment on pending litigation.
“However, Mayor Noble expressed a number of times his sympathy for the hardships the homeowners have suffered,” she said in the email. “The city’s insurer has retained counsel to handle these claims on behalf of the city. Prior to the lawsuit being filed, the insurer’s counsel retained an engineer to ascertain the extent of the damage to the respective properties and to determine the cost of repair. However, once the lawsuits were filed, the engineer could not inspect the properties without the consent of the claimant’s attorneys. This has resulted in a delay in trying to resolve these claims.
“In addition, the city believes the fault for any damage lies with the engineers and contractors who were hired to perform the work,” Weiss said. “Any payment for these claims should be the responsibility of those engineers and contractors who are now involved in this litigation. We hope all parties can get together to work towards resolving these lawsuits as quickly as possible.”
The section of Washington Avenue between Linderman Avenue and Marius Street was closed from April 2011 until May 2016.
The most costly portion of the sinkhole repair was a soil-stabilization project that included construction of a 10,000-ton underground archway. The archway was built below the road and above a century-old stormwater tunnel, leaks from which were blamed for causing the sinkhole.
The total cost of the sinkhole repair project stands at about $7.6 million.