Dallas Street Repair Work $15M Over Budget With No Record Of Why

DALLAS (CBSDFW.COM) - Road work projects in Dallas went over budget by more than $15 million and the city has no record of why, an audit found.

City council will be briefed Wednesday, March 2 on the audit on road paving improvement and maintenance projects, which calls into question what the city is doing to keep budgets and timelines in check.

"Projects are not consistently monitored and inspected for quality and timely performance," reads the audit.

Never-ending road work and street repairs going over budget have been the butt of many jokes in Dallas.

Three years ago frustrated neighbors in Casa View even dubbed a flooded work site "Lake Casa View" and threw a "Luau at the Lake" complete with duck floats to protest the lack of progress there.

The report by City Auditor Mark Swann found daily updates on projects are inconsistent or incomplete.

The use of various incompatible record keeping systems meant records sometimes conflict and relevant dates, like a project's scheduled start and finish, can be unclear.

The city, the audit found, also isn't tracking the materials it's invoiced for, creating "an increased risk of fraudulent activities or improper payment to contractors."

When street repairs do go over budget, the audit found no record of why.

For two contractors it looked at, that translated into projects that cost $15 million more than what they city had estimated, with no documented explanation for the extra expense.

When projects are finished, the city auditor found no evidence quality control testing or final inspections had been done to ensure they'd been properly completed.

Dallas City Manager T.C. Broadnax responded with a memo saying the city is adopting more than 80% of the auditor's recommendations.

One, he noted, it is not taking action not is keeping records of cost overages. His response noted the city currently estimates costs by the number of street miles and the type of work, a method he call efficient, even if it is "subject to inaccuracies on an individual project basis."

Better estimates would require five more full-time employees and other changes to the city's process, he wrote.