For four years, Cambridge has had about $84,000 buried under Dickson Street.

Instead of a hidden treasure trove for city council, however, it’s been an almost forgotten boondoggle, with 12 non-functioning bollards stuck underground almost since the day of unveiling in 2015.

The $181,000 portion of a $1.85-million streetscaping project in 2014 in front of city hall — with four electrically operated, automatic traffic control bollards at each end of the street, as well as manual bollards at the end of Petty Place to control rear access — has been on the fritz since its dress rehearsal in June 2015, two days before the first use for the Mayor’s Celebration of the Arts and Cambridge Arts Festival.

At the unveiling, seven of the eight automated bollards worked normally, while the eighth failed to rise out of the pavement. Of the four manually controlled bollards, all deployed, but workers were seen stomping on them to get them to retract into the pavement.

At the time, Shawn Falcao, city communication manager, said after the failed test run, adjustments were made to the bollards and they were functioning properly.

“They never functioned and I don’t believe the city ever paid for them,” recalled former mayor Doug Craig, who headed up city council throughout the life of the project.

“The contractor worked on it and worked on it and we weren’t satisfied and I don’t think we paid the bill. If the contractor wants to take them out I guess he can, but yeah, they don’t work at all. Which was unfortunate because that was the idea at the time.”

Coun. Jan Liggett, who has city hall in her ward, was elected in 2014 after the construction on the street was completed. In an email correspondence with former city manager Gary Dyke in June 2016 about the non-operational bollards — four months after she started asking questions — Dyke told her $97,000 was held back from the contractor and the contractor had been suspended from future work with the city. Craig previously believed the entire amount was withheld.

“Even three days after that it says that they still haven’t released all the funds to the contractor. That’s the last one that I have on paper,” Liggett said.

When contacted by the Times for an update on the bollards, an email statement from the city said, “City staff are still working with the contractor to complete the obligations of the contract and hope to have this resolved soon. In the meantime, road closure signage and barricades are used when there is a need to close Dickson Street for special events, etc.”