WASHINGTON — Pepco will be fined for failing to maintain a construction panel that shifted, leaving a hole that a car fell into Friday.
The District Department of Transportation, which has oversight of projects involving D.C. roads, said Tuesday Pepco will be penalized after a panel covering one of its work sites in Northwest D.C. slipped out of place Friday as a car passed over it. Part of the vehicle fell into the hole.
The two people in the car at the time were not injured.
DDOT spokeswoman Michelle Phipps-Evans said Pepco faces a fine for failure to meet standards for steel plate maintenance and application.
“DDOT’s inspection team followed up with quality control reviews and will issue [Tuesday] a Notice of Violation (NOV) to Pepco for failure to meet permit conditions,” DDOT spokeswoman Michelle Phipps-Evans said in an email to WTOP.
DDOT has not yet released the amount Pepco will be fined.
Phipps-Evans said the incident was a case of contractor error and that all road work must comply with the District’s guidelines and requirements for steel plates. DDOT inspects the panels.
Pepco said Monday it was investigating what led to the panel failure. The utility company inspected all similar project sites to ensure they are safe and found no other areas of concern, said Pepco spokesman Marcus Beal.
Beal added that the plate was repaired after the incident.
Phipps-Evans said the site is now safe for drivers.
“The plates at this location have been realigned to prevent a recurrence,” Phipps-Evans said in an email. “The excavation has been shored and DDOT has inspected the work area to ensure its safety.”
WTOP’s Mike Murillo contributed to this report.
