MOUNT PLEASANT – Sidewalk upgrades along a small stretch of roadway caused big problems for a handful of residents, who claim the construction resulted in damaged property and left them wary of a project aimed to improve pedestrian accessibility.
In March, Mount Pleasant awarded a contract to repave a sidewalk along Mathis Ferry Road and Von Kolnitz Road to a local construction company.
Town purchasing staff recommended Braetr Construction take on the work for $727,627. The award also included new raised crossings on Harry Hallman Boulevard near Waterfront Memorial Park.
Braetr, headquartered in Charleston, is a general contracting firm “for commercial, airport, and federal projects across South Carolina and the Southeast,” according to the company’s website.
The firm was tasked with pouring a new concrete sidewalk and installing new drainage infrastructure for the pathways at the intersection of Von Kolnitz Road and Mathis Ferry Road. A townhome development straddles this corner, with a busy senior center across the way and James B. Edwards Elementary School down the street.
Richard Luciano said his brief stay in his rented townhome was upended by the construction work and property damage. Luciano, of Colorado, was in Mount Pleasant for less than a year, his time overlapping with the bulk of construction.
He came to town to sell a fixer-upper home on the Isle of Palms following his wife’s passing. The sounds of heavy machinery and jackhammering concrete became the soundtrack to his time in Mount Pleasant, he told The Post and Courier.
At best, Luciano said, construction was disruptive. Luciano said his sleep was often interrupted by beeping noises and concrete slabs dropping to the ground. The noise “was constant,” he said.
At worst, he claims the work damaged vehicles and severed utility lines.
Photos provided by Luciano to The Post and Courier show a flooded parking lot, cut cable lines and a splintered fence surrounding his backyard. Braetr’s crews staged equipment in the grassy area directly behind Luciano’s townhome.
Luciano’s neighbor, Tevin Smith, had similar frustrations throughout the duration of construction.
Smith said he asked Braetr’s project manager and crews to let him know if he should move his car while they dug up the previous sidewalk, which sat directly in front of residents’ parking spots.
Smith described excavators carrying material directly over his vehicle, with debris and dust sometimes falling onto his car.
Then came the water.
Smith’s car, a 2015 Jaguar, is low to the ground. He said he came out one day as work was ongoing and saw, to his surprise, several inches of standing water surrounding his vehicle.
A water line had been cut during construction that “flooded the entire street,” Smith said, and he didn’t know until he stepped outside.
“My vehicle was submerged in almost ankle-deep, up-to-here of water,” Smith said, gesturing to his feet. “You guys just flooded the street, no one decided to knock and say anything?”
Luciano claimed that workers tried to disperse the floodwaters with blowers, causing rocks and debris to cover his car. He documented the complaint to the police in June for insurance purposes, according to an incident report. His vehicle's paint was scratched and windshield was damaged, according to the report. Estimates from two local mechanics valued the needed repairs at over $7,000.
Attempts to get reimbursed for the damage to their vehicles “fell on deaf ears,” Smith and Luciano said. Smith did not file a police report regarding the damage.
“I want to make sure everybody's taken care of. If there's damage to a vehicle, resolve it immediately,” Luciano said.
Mount Pleasant Communications Manager Eric LaFontaine declined to comment on Luciano's complaints. The town spokesperson did, however, confirm the damage to water lines occurred and the repair came at the expense of the contractor.
Braetr did not respond to multiple calls or emails seeking comment.
Construction was completed last month. The work on Von Kolnitz Road aimed to bring better pedestrian walkways in a high-traffic area, said Sophie Holmes, a project manager for the town of Mount Pleasant.
“(The) parking area for the townhomes along both Mathis Ferry and Von Kolnitz was serving as both a pedestrian area and a parking area, which is obviously unsafe for pedestrians. We wanted to delineate those a little bit more clearly,” Holmes said.
Holmes added that the company also installed new drainage structures beneath the updated sidewalk. That structure aims to address an area historically prone to flooding.