Kansas City accuses Spire of digging up newly repaved roads, halts work permits for utility

Have you noticed metal plates or hastily repaired patches of asphalt in the roads around Kansas City? City government has taken notice, too. Earlier this week, City Manager Brian Platt took to Twitter to call out utility giant Spire for digging into freshly paved streets around the metro.

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

Platt was referring to a new set of city road maintenance regulations put in place last year in an attempt to prevent potholes and other road damage. The city’s plan requires coordination between utility crews and the city, as well as better repairs for street cuts once they occur.

The city has stopped issuing work permits to Spire because of the violations.

“Regarding the recent street cuts on Linwood Boulevard, Spire was aware of our plans and ignored them, afterwards claiming emergency work was needed there,” said Chris Hernandez, a spokesperson for the city manager’s office.

“We have identified other recent instances of this on Gillham Road, 27th Street, and 31st Street. Historically, the city has also seen newly repaved streets torn up on Southwest Boulevard and Trafficway, Oak Street and sidewalks in Brookside.”

A Spire executive responded that the utility giant is in close communication with the city, but hasn’t been told what specific steps officials want the company to take towards resolution.

“We’re coordinating and collaborating as best as we can with the city,” said Stephen Mills, the vice president and general manager for Spire Missouri West, which serves the Kansas City area. “We’ve been adhering to the new street cut ordinance… As far as we’re concerned, we’ve been doing what we should do.”

Mills said that while Spire was aware of the decision before it was announced publicly, he was not anticipating Platt’s tweet about the issue. As of around 2 p.m. on Wednesday, Spire still had not received word about what specific next steps the city hopes to see, according to a spokesperson.

“We will look for a resolution that complies with our ordinances and is considerate of the investment Kansas City taxpayers have committed to our roadways,” Hernandez said in an emailed message to The Star. He did not immediately reply to a follow-up request for comment on what that resolution could look like.

Mills added that the work permit stoppage would only impact Spire’s general maintenance work, which involves replacing older pipes that carry natural gas through the city. Individual customers shouldn’t see a direct impact from the decision.

“It’s not going to affect any customer from a service perspective,” Mills said. Spire crews will still be allowed to repair infrastructure in emergency situations like gas leaks, and customers should not see an interruption or a price increase to their natural gas service.

A recent report by The Star found that the city has increasingly turned to road resurfacing in recent years to deal with a growing pothole problem. This expensive fix is intended to offer a more permanent solution than pothole patching– but utility conflicts have stymied many repairs by either preventing them from happening at all or by creating new street cuts soon after roads are resurfaced.

Spire is also requesting another rate increase from their state regulator, the Missouri Public Services Commission. If approved, Spire customers’ price per CCF (hundred cubic feet of gas) would increase between 63% and 67% depending on the amount of gas used and the time of year.

Do you have more questions about utility services in Kansas City? Ask the Service Journalism team at kcq@kcstar.com.