A construction company whose employees have broken four gas lines and caused other damage while working on a sanitary sewer project was dismissed by Fort Dodge officials Thursday.

“We did instruct Carstensen Contracting that they are removed from the job because of repeated ongoing issues with their performance,” City Manager David Fierke said Thursday afternoon.

He said the Pipestone, Minnesota, company has been instructed to make the work areas on the city’s south side clean and safe. A search for a new contractor to finish the job will start soon, he added.

“We’re trying to get somebody in as quick as possible to get the work done,” Fierke said.

However, the entire project will not be finished this year, he said.

The city, he said, has money budgeted for the project which has not yet been paid to Carstensen Contracting that can be used to pay a different company.

He said Carstensen Contracting had to post a surety bond to guarantee its work. That money “is available to the city,” he added.

Phone calls to the company’s office were not answered late Thursday afternoon.

The company was removed from the project a day after its crews hit a gas line near Ninth Avenue South and 18th Street, just north of Butler Elementary School.

Assistant Fire Chief Lenny Sanders said they struck and broke a one-inch diameter distribution line. No one was injured and no evacuations were necessary.

On June 22, a backhoe struck and broke a two-inch diameter gas line near Eighth Avenue South and 18th Street. Other gas line breaks occurred on April 13 and April 21.

City Engineer Tony Trotter said the company’s crews have also:

Broken three water service lines.

Left sandbags in a manhole, causing two sewage backups.

Knocked down an overhead electric line.

Cut a Frontier Communications phone line.

The company was hired by the City Council in August 2015 to do a sanitary sewer improvement project intended to eliminate sewage backups in a large part of southern Fort Dodge. The work involves increasing the capacity of sanitary sewers and changing the way wastewater flows through those sewers. Some new storm sewers are to be installed and parts of some streets are to be rebuilt also.

Carstensen Contracting submitted the low bid of $3,986,340.50.

Other bidders were Jensen Builders Ltd., of Fort Dodge, $4,449,925; Wicks Construction, of Decorah, $4,668,688; Geislinger & Sons Inc., of Watkins, Minnesota, $4,783,097; and H &W Contracting LLC, of Sioux Falls, South Dakota, $5,495,292.50.

In late 2014 and early 2015, Carstensen Contracting installed a 16-inch diameter water main from the intersection of Fifth Avenue South and Webster County Road P59 to the Gypsum City Off-Highway Vehicle Park. There were apparently no major problems with that project.