The Mystery of the Missing Miami Manholes

A police investigation is under way in the City of Miami to find out what happened to 22,500 feet of underground water and sewage pipes, that's over 4 miles of pipes, together with 254 access tunnels and manholes, and 142 shut off valves.

A construction company called Jackson land Development of Pompano Beach was contracted to undertake the $2.2 million project, but now neither the city public services department or other city officials seem to know what happened to the materials, and indeed were the tunnels ever built.

You might well agree with Miami Councilwoman Barbara Kramer, who commented "Why did we need all those manholes".

The money for the project was paid to the construction company, but it seems that there is no evidence that any of the tunnels were ever dug. When contacted, officials for the construction company failed to return the calls.

The discoveries came to light after an engineering company was hired by the City of Miami to investigate spending by Martin King, who was the city's public service director and responsible for overseeing the construction work.

Martin King resigned from his position back in May, after admitting that he had approved purchase orders for services that were not performed, and materials that were never delivered.

When contacted, Mr King also refused to return calls.

The audit undertaken by the engineering company showed that spreadsheets were missing, there were duplicate purchase orders, and also no record of there the work was actually performed.

Although the investigation is still ongoing, it looks as if it is pretty much a foregone conclusion that some dirty work has been going on in the public service department.

Sources:

Sun Sentinel