Council Considers $2M Fix at Wastewater Treatment Site
Wednesday, March 27 2013
At Tuesday night’s meeting, city council discussed a plan that would triple the project budget for preparatory work at the site of the new wastewater treatment plant.
Advanced Blasting had a contract to remove the cliff behind the existing plant to make room for the new one. They finished most of that work by February, but now significant rock slides are threatening construction of the new building. Crews can’t move in until the slope is stable.
Advanced Blasting has offered to stabilize the cliff using mesh and customized anchors, to pin the loose rock in place. But their quote is $2.1 million.
That shocked some residents at the meeting, like Alyssa McDonald. In a follow-up interview with KUCB she said she couldn’t believe the work was being presented as a change order to the original contract.
"As a former council member, I was concerned that the change order was the largest I’d ever heard [of]," McDonald says.
The proposed change order is almost double the initial, $1.4 million contract.
"So the actual bid has been outperformed by the change order," McDonald says. "And that fundamentally -- as public funds -- for me, is hard to swallow."
In the past the city has awarded other large change orders, but none as big as this one. Mayor Shirley Marquardt said at the meeting that the largest she could remember was $700,000. The most recent large change order was $450,000 for the removal of contaminated soil during construction of the new 8-plex.
City code doesn’t spell out specific rules for when a contract has to be put out to bid, and Marquardt says there aren’t any rules governing change orders, either.
"Change orders, often, if it’s within the budgeted amount, administration and staff just go ahead and put them through to keep the project going," Marquardt said. "But this one is substantial. It's significant. And it’s over the amount."
Councilors Zoya Johnson, Dennis Robinson and Roger Rowland all said they wanted the project to go out to bid. But city manager Chris Hladick said there might not be enough time to do that.
According to a settlement the city reached with the Department of Justice last year, the plant has to be operational by 2016. If it’s not, the city faces fines.
How big those fines might be wasn’t addressed at the meeting. Court documents spell out per-day fines based on many different factors, but it’s unclear which ones would apply in this case.
Hladick couldn’t be reached for comment Wednesday. At the meeting, he said he interpreted the language of the settlement to mean the DOJ would not extend the deadlines for completion because of poor site conditions.
But several residents with expertise in blasting who spoke at the meeting said site conditions weren’t to blame for the delays.
Glenn Olson of Northern Mechanical criticized the quality of the work that Advanced Blasting has already done, and cautioned against awarding the change order.
As Olson put it: “He bid it too cheap to start, and it looks like he’s going to get his money now.”
Northern Mechanical originally bid on the job but couldn’t match Advanced Blasting’s quote.
There’s a special meeting Thursday at 12:15 p.m. in council chambers to decide whether to approve the $2.1 million change order.
tax payer too on Tuesday, April 02 2013:
Good help is hard to find.
TripleU on Monday, April 01 2013:
This Wastewater travisty is the City of Unalaska's DPW fault - now every one has to pay?? Take the money out of the City of Unalaska's workers pension fund - get the money from who caused this....let them retire on less. Unisea and Westward get fined by DOJ and they pay - they don't make the processors/workers pay - City should not make the taxpayers pay by raising utility rates for their workers previous mistakes.
PayAttention on Thursday, March 28 2013:
Pay attention to this people. Your money is being thrown around to cover up bad project management. This is change order #8. The other 7 change orders already cost you $400K. Council is about to reward these guys for doing a terrible job. Instead of giving them more money the City should be suing them for deficient work. Staff wants you to believe they have to do it because of the short timeframe and threat of fines. Not the whole truth... There is plenty of time. Only a small part of the project has to be done in 2014. They are giving you partial truths to try and get what they want and waste your hard earned $$$$. So sad…..
Just A Thought on Thursday, March 28 2013:
I believe that our DPW director and our expert engineer should be held accountable for this. Maybe its time for our a new DPW director and also a new engineer that lives here not in Washington!
bendmeover on Thursday, March 28 2013:
The paving project was bad now this It might be time to look at the real problem. Management and counsel the sewer plat should have been completed years ago according to the feds, now its panic time and they will spend money foolishly. Already a $300,000 fine before the project started now 2.1 million to stabilize a cliff Management hiring bad engineers and cheep contractors that need a 2.1 million change order, what next they are just getting started.
Vikinggirl on Thursday, March 28 2013:
The three council members comments were that they would like to see the bid process as other city projects, but realize the risks to do so this time on this project probably outweigh that desire. They were supporting the recommendation with their comments at that meeting. They will make a final decision today at the lunch meeting if they are ready.