Transfer station costs keep mounting
Staff writer
The projected $1.87 million price for a county transfer station has swelled by $150,931 because of contaminated soil at the construction site and incorrect information about the location and size of city of Marion electrical wiring at the premises.
Randy Purdue, engineer for Kaw Valley Engineering, asked commissioners Monday to approve two change orders for the project.
Construction began in March and has been slowed by these issues and rainy weather.
Contaminated soil was discovered in spring 2019 when ground work was being before construction.
Soil had to be excavated and moved to another location so it could be de-contaminated. New soil was brought and cost was high enough the contractor asked for additional payment, Purdue said.
The old soil eventually will be usable for a different project, but not in time for the transfer station project, Purdue said.
Commissioners agreed to add $141,052 for the contamination.
The second change order will pay for different electrical connectors.
Purdue said connectors originally purchased to install within the city electrical junction box were too small because the wire size was larger than the county had been told. The new connectors cost $9,870.54. No additional labor costs were added, Purdue said.
Purdue blamed the mistake on being told about the wiring rather than seeing it on a map.
Wire size wasn’t the only problem with the electrical system, which the city has been working years to upgrade.
A wire earlier dug up by construction workers was buried too shallowly.
This led to one recent power failure. Another was blamed on a faulty connector.
“We have thrown in three outages that the public would be blaming us,” Purdue said. “None of the problems have really slowed work,” he said.