The city of Covington voted to pay $30,000 for overruns on the Clark Street Project Monday.

Two weeks ago the Covington City Council decided to have attorney Ed Crudup look over the contract with the construction company who worked on the project.

In the two weeks since the $30,000 overrun first came in front of the council, it came up that the contractor completed the job, but the engineer did not calculate the amount of asphalt needed properly. Another point to paying the overrun, rather than going to litigation, was that the contract called for a “step phased dispute resolution,” meaning first the dispute would be discussed, then head to mediation and then arbitration, before going to court. Also within the contract was a standard of care provision, stating that the design professional makes no warrantees expressed or implied in the agreement.

“Mr. Crudup has reviewed the situation and has determined from what he thinks, that the city hasn’t lost anything and the scope of what could be obtained from pursuing damages from the engineering firm (isn’t that large),” Covington City Manager Leigh Ann Knight said.

Crudup told the city council that attorneys are trained to think in terms of damages, or money, and in this case that didn’t equate to be a gain for the city.

“How much money was the city out in this situation?” Crudup asked the council rhetorically. “I can’t find any.”

After agreeing to pay the overrun cost the council then discussed not using the same engineering firm, which was selected in a bid from the Department of Transportation, again for city of Covington projects.