Two water-main breaks tore up the 400 block of Northeast Moreland Drive in Kansas City's Northland this year, one in June and another in September. Both breaks got patched, but the street itself was left with big holes in the ground for months, and a school bus had been picking up children near the gaps for weeks, covered only by thin sheets of plywood.
Resident Karol Hughes said she called KC Water multiple times since June asking for the street to be paved and the holes filled, according to KMBC. She and her neighbors kept calling, but their calls produced none of the results they wanted. Hughes told her story to KMBC 9 Investigates on October 9, and permanent fixes began on the street one day later, according to the station's follow-up report.
“I feel relieved,” Hughes said after watching the repair crews arrive, per the same KMBC account. She said the crews came out, double-checked everything, and found a major problem that needed addressing, with the repairs ultimately extending to other pipes along the street beyond the original two breaks.
Deputy Director Says Crews Moved Fast Once Notified
KC Water Deputy Director Brent Herring said crews would repair the street just hours after KMBC reached out to the utility, the station reported. Herring, who holds the title of deputy director overseeing water and wastewater operations, said he got crews to work immediately once he learned of the situation, and KC Water surveyed the repairs over the weekend.
Herring said the utility makes mistakes and sometimes fails to communicate effectively, adding that KC Water is working to improve its processes. He and his managers are identifying improvements to the handoffs between the utility's departments and its contractors, the report states. Herring also said KC Water will investigate why it took so long for the repairs to happen in the first place.
“We understand people's frustration when they don't have water, can't flush, or have flooding,” Herring said, according to the station's reporting. He described water, sewer, and street repairs as complex work that doesn't always align with exact timelines, and said KC Water will pay for the Moreland Drive work from a budget already set aside for repairs.
Part of a Much Bigger Backlog Citywide
The Moreland Drive delay is not an isolated headache for KC Water. The utility maintains 2,800 miles of water main and another 2,800 miles of sewer pipeline across Kansas City, and some of those pipes are more than a century old, which contributes to frequent breaks that tear up streets during repairs, according to KCTV5.
To keep pace with the backlog of torn-up streets, Kansas City's Transportation, Infrastructure and Operations Committee approved a contract renewal worth more than $11.8 million to repave streets damaged by water-main and sewer repairs, KCTV5 reported in September. That contract, totaling $11,886,536, is up from $9,633,880 the year before, and it was headed to the full City Council for final approval.
The city's repair needs stretch well beyond repaving contracts. Kansas City voters have approved $1.5 billion in bond funding for water and sewer infrastructure improvements, split between two separate $750 million measures, one for water-system upgrades and one for sanitary-sewer work, according to Underground Infrastructure. KC Water's Water Main Replacement Program aims to swap out roughly 28 miles of aging water mains every year, per the same report.
A Northland Neighborhood Still Waiting Years Later
Moreland Drive residents waited months, but some Northland neighbors have waited far longer. In Oakview, resident Craig Hill said the first time he remembers hearing about KC Water's project there was 2020, and five years later, he said the job still hadn't been finished, according to FOX4.
KC Water crews had replaced the mains in the Oakview street, but residents reported bumpy, uneven concrete and unfinished road surfaces, the station reported. Crews had filled in the trenches left by the digging with concrete and completed sidewalks and driveway aprons, but milling and asphalt work still remained. KC Water told FOX4 that repaving would be next on the schedule once that remaining work was finished.
