A Kansas City street war: Spire Energy needs to quit tearing up brand-new pavement

This week, Kansas City Manager Brian Platt took to social media to publicly spank utility giant Spire Energy. What pushed him to the brink?

“We recently paved Linwood Ave & @spire_energy dug a trench through it within weeks, one of a few examples of blatant disregard of our new street excavation rules,” Platt wrote on Twitter. “This doesn’t work anymore in #kansascity — we are stopping all new work permits from Spire until we see improvements.”

Kansas City has invested heavily in improved roadways, and Spire’s aggressive approach to replacing older gas lines and pipes is a source of frustration for Kansas City taxpayers and government types, city officials said.

Platt called on Spire, the only natural gas supplier in the metropolitan area, to explain why the company routinely cuts into newly resurfaced streets in Kansas City. Private conversations yielded very few changes, Platt said, so he went public.

We share his concerns.

Have you driven in Midtown lately around 31st Street and Gillham Road? Proceed with caution. At the moment, street conditions at the well-traversed corridor near Martini Corner are horrendous and potentially dangerous for pedestrians, bicyclists and motorists.

Spire’s work to replace aging underground infrastructure is to blame for the unmitigated mess in that area and several other locations in Kansas City.

We took a dicey stroll eastbound down 27th Street and back near West Paseo Boulevard, where we saw bright orange detour signs for pedestrians and orange traffic barriers. Utility work has made it difficult to travel along the street, which is one lane in each direction. A steel plate covers a portion of 27th, among several city arteries that have been repaved and later “cut up,” Platt said this week.

Along Linwood Boulevard, just west of Troost Avenue, street conditions make for a trying commute. The sidewalk on the north side of Gillham at Lindwood is closed, putting pedestrians’ safety at great risk. One recent evening, we witnessed a woman in a motorized wheelchair who had to navigate through traffic cones and barriers by traveling the opposite direction of eastbound traffic on Linwood.

Here and elsewhere, these traffic problems create confusion and hazards for motorists and pedestrians, according to business owners.

A new city policy introduced last year lays out the guidelines for contract utility work within the city. Under the rules, all utility projects except for emergency repairs must be approved by the city. Any new street excavation plan must include enhanced traffic safety protocols. Spire and its contractors disregard these protocols, city officials say.

Spire officials maintain they are operating in good faith, but Platt’s public dressing-down says otherwise. “Any upgrades or scheduled projects are on hold until open projects are safe, cleaned up and traffic control devices are intact,” he said. “And streets must be fully repaired.”

Spire officials blame the dustup on miscommunication among city departments.

“We want to get this resolved as quickly as possible,” said Stephen Mills, vice president and general manager for Spire Missouri West.

Miscommunication is a poor excuse — and we’re not buying it.

On Thursday, work crews contracted by Spire began to repair the damaged pavement, city officials said.

Improving infrastructure is necessary and can run into unpredictable obstacles — we get that. But Spire and its contractors have to take precautions to protect the public and its workers. There is no excuse to skirt city rules, as Platt contends.

Spire has given no clear reasons why they are ignoring city ordinances. For the sake of travelers everywhere, the utility company must abide by the conditions set forth by Kansas City.