Wednesday night, Dayton City Commissioners voted to accept a $700,000 settlement from the Eagle Bridge Company. The Sidney based contractor was hired by the Montgomery County engineer to build the new Keowee Street Bridge over the Great Miami River.
In the lawsuit, the City of Dayton sued the company for improperly building a causeway and for not supporting the river bank. The city alleged this resulted in massive river bank erosion causing a 36-inch main water line to become dislodged. On February 13, 2019, more than 400,000 Montgomery County residents lost water service.
Michael Powell is the director of Dayton’s department of water. He said this settlement sends a clear message to all contractors.
“The city of Dayton expects for our staff to perform quality work and we naturally expect that of our vendors as well. So the city will look to recoup costs of damages from those who caused them,” Powell said. “We'll continue to do that in order to protect our ratepayers.”
Dayton has about 800 miles of water main lines.
