Engineering firm Quad Knopf will pay to repair drainage pipe in Kings Lions Park

The large pipe was built originally when the park was renovated following the construction of the 19th Avenue overpass. The park was completely remodeled and now hosts a parking lot, bathrooms, two ball fields and two dog parks, separate spaces for large and small dogs. The exposed pipe, clearly visible above the grassy area, is in the middle of the small dog park, and it has been closed for several months while city officials and its civil engineers, from the Visalia engineering firm, Quad Knopf, decided what to do to fix it.

According to Lemoore Public Works Director Nathan Olson, who is relatively new to the public works’ position, the pipe was originally meant to be constructed out of concrete, but somewhere along the line somebody, whether the city or Quad Knopf, may have changed it to plastic.

“It was supposed to (built) of concrete,” said Olson. “But somewhere along the line somebody changed it.” Neither Olson or the firm that engineered the pipe knows how the change came about. “The original “specs” called for a concrete (pipe),” he said.

“I have nothing from the city that we changed it, and I don’t have anything from Quad Knopf that they changed it,” he said.

Olson said that Quad Knopf has agreed to pay the cost of repairing the pipe. “Quad is making the adjustments at their own expense. They will get back to me for a date to fix it.”

Olson said the pipe is a drain line that removes water from the park and expels the water via an outlet in the parking lot, another issue that Olson says Quad Knopf will remedy. “That’s part of their job to make sure we don’t have a problem,” he said.

Apparently, plastic tends to float, hence in that part of the park, with some unique features, the pipe broke through the surface and has been exposed for several months. It’s not the first time it happened, according to the city’s part-time engineer, Rick Joyner, who works for Quad Knopf. “It came up previously,” he said, “and then we fixed it, and then it came up again.”

It’s been 8 or 9 months since it came up he said.

Joyner said his firm will cover the cost of the repair and Quad Knopf currently has bids out to construction forms to fix the pipe by encasing it in concrete and plastic. Only the exposed part of the pipe will be fixed.

“We’re going to take care of the one portion that’s in the dog park,” he said. “We will encase it in plastic and concrete.”