Cohen defends Newton North plumbing

By Calvin Hennick, Globe Correspondent

Newton Mayor David Cohen says the city’s new $197.5 million high school will be completed on time and under budget, despite a state plumbing board’s assertion that “very poor workmanship” had been completed on the site.

“It is not going to have a significant impact anywhere,” Cohen said. “It is not going to affect the schedule.”

On October 28, the Board of State Examiners of Plumbers and Gas Fitters rejected the city’s request for a variance allowing it to use PVC pipe instead of cast iron pipe to direct rainwater to the school’s toilets. The board said the system had a “likelihood of failure.”

Cohen said the city will leave the pipes in place and use them to direct rainwater to the school’s playing fields instead of toilets. That will take the pipes out of the state board’s jurisdiction and will only cost $5,000 to $10,000, Cohen said.

Cohen said that the pipe had been installed properly. When an inspector came to view the project, Cohen said, city officials showed him a piece of piping that had been hit by construction vehicles and was going to be fixed. However, Cohen said, the state board took that piece of faulty pipe to mean that the entire project had been done poorly.

“I do think they should have given us notice and a chance to respond to what this fellow had to say, because I think we could have provided them with some good information,” Cohen said.

“I’m certain that if we had been given a chance to address directly the inspector’s concerns, we would have shown that not only is the work satisfactory, but we’re placing a premium on high-quality work,” Cohen added.

Cohen said workers laid the pipe before the city asked for a variance because two similar variances had been granted to other cities and because the city already had the back-up plan to use the pipes to irrigate the fields in case the variance was turned down.

The city will still end up saving money by using the PVC pipe, Cohen said, because the approximately $100,000 cost difference from the cast iron pipe easily eclipses the cost of repurposing the pipes.

Cohen said high school project, which is set to open next fall, will come in “significantly under budget.” Cohen said he didn’t yet know how far under budget the project will be, but that he will likely have that number in the next few weeks.

Calvin Hennick can be reached at calvinhennick@yahoo.com.