District 1 Councilmember Finalizes Council Consideration Request

Published on October 16, 2024

District 1 Councilmember Finalizes Council Consideration Request Addressing Construction Project Delays

SAN ANTONIO (October 15, 2024) — District 1 Councilmember Dr. Sukh Kaur introduced a Council Consideration Request (CCR) to tackle ongoing construction project delays caused by inaccurate or incomplete utility location records. This CCR seeks to use modern engineering methods, keep up-to-date records of utility locations, and identify preventable delays in construction projects. It will now advance to the City Council's A Session after today's discussion in the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee meeting.

The key recommendations from today's discussions include:

• Ensure utility locates are accurate and complete in the design phase of projects
• Have utility partners be signatories to construction contracts to ensure mutual responsibility
• Categorize projects based on risk level and align investigative work with the proper Subsurface Utility Engineering methods for accuracy
• Establish a dispute resolution process with formal review if there is a disagreement 
  
  

“One of our day one priorities was to understand and help fix our construction delays,” the Councilmember said. “So many businesses have suffered deep financial losses related to ongoing construction. Without having an accurate project timeline to plan, we are told it’s nearly impossible for them to survive. In creating this policy recommendation, we found that there aren’t consistent guarantees about what is underground and whether that is known before a project starts. For projects like South Alamo or Zona Cultural, where utilities were not in the locations they were shared to be, our community has suffered the consequences. I’m glad we’re moving forward with a strong standard in which we hold our utility partners accountable for knowing where their infrastructure is located.” 

With this initiative, District 1 aims to improve construction efficiency and protect San Antonio’s growing infrastructure.