Explosive Materials in Reused Rocks Halt Landfill Expansion
Monday, April 21 2014
Courtesy of City Hall
The city has canceled a $3.9 million contract with Northern Alaska to expand the landfill, after workers found evidence of explosive material in heaps of rock recycled from the wastewater treatment plant site.
About two weeks ago, city manager Chris Hladick says Northern Alaska discovered dynamite wrappers and wrappers from booster explosives buried in the piles of rock at the landfill.
"We were told by the contractor that that means there’s material in that pile," Hladick says, "and they did find a small amount of blasting material."
It was the city’s idea to reuse that rock to build berms around new landfill cells. But Northern Alaska stopped working once the explosive wrappers turned up.
They submitted a $2.3 million change order to deal with the potentially contaminated rock. At more than half the cost of the original construction agreement, Hladick says it was too expensive.
"We decided to terminate for convenience, which we’re allowed to do," he says, "and to figure out what our next move is."
Hladick says that’s going to include negotiations with the company that’s responsible for the explosives: Advanced Blasting of Wasilla. They were hired to prepare the wastewater site for construction by blasting out a space for the building last year.
But they didn’t clean up all of their explosives. Last summer, Northern Mechanical -- Northern Alaska’s parent company -- found sticks of dynamite at one part of the site.
Hladick says this time, the contaminated rocks came from a different spot.
"We brought that material over to the landfill, thinking we were going to save a bunch of money by having the material available to use in building the berms, etc., at the landfill," he says.
But now, the city has to start over and reissue the contract for the entire project. Hladick says he isn’t sure if it will go back out to bid, or if the city will hire one contractor directly. Either way, he says the new cells won’t be completed this year.
Advanced Blasting owner Julia Saunders declined to comment on the situation.
Related stories:
- Council Considers $2M Fix at Wastewater Treatment Site (March 27, 2013)
- Council Awards $1.45M Change Order to Advanced Blasting, Shutting Down Bids (April 10, 2013)
- Explosives Turn Up at Wastewater Treatment Plant (August 2, 2013)
- Blasting Blunder Disrupts Plant Construction (August 22, 2013)
Helen Stanley on Thursday, May 01 2014:
This is just greed by the contractor, who has made a lot of money off of City contracts. The City Council needs to give direction to not award Northern Mechanical or Northern Alaska Contractors any more contracts.
More Info on Wednesday, April 23 2014:
The City wouldn't cancel a contract if there was not a big problem. Maybe KUCB could dig deeper and give us some more information so if there is blame/shenanigans going on it can be directed to the right place.
If it was as simple as Shenanigans/Wrappers/Facts don't justify actions are saying it sure seems like it would have gotten figured out. You were all pretty quick to point the finger in one direction...
Shenanigans have been called. on Wednesday, April 23 2014:
I find paper explosives wrappers in my yard all the time after the City's Fireworks displays... is they City going to pay for the potential contamination on my property as well?
Or is this just Northern Mechanical / Northern Alaska trying to get back at the City for not awarding them the original blasting contract in the first place?
Wrappers on Tuesday, April 22 2014:
Hmmmm $2.3 million to deal with a few wrappers. Sounds expensive. The material has already been handled a few times without problems.
Facts dont justify actions on Tuesday, April 22 2014:
Evidence and wrappers are not dangerous.
"after workers found evidence of explosive material in heaps of rock"
"dynamite wrappers and wrappers from booster explosives"