PORT ANGELES — The city’s public works director found himself on the ropes at this week’s City Council meeting defending the allotment of $5.68 million in contracts to Exeltech Consulting Inc. over the last seven years and the use of the Lacey-based company for another upcoming project.
The questions over the use of the firm — which has overseen the construction of the Eighth Street bridges and The Gateway transit center — arose Tuesday when a proposed $164,800 contract for the design of a pedestrian bridge raised a few eyebrows.
“This seems like an awful lot of money for a pedestrian footbridge,” commented Council member Max Mania after the contract with Exeltech was pulled out of the consent agenda for discussion.
“It really seems excessive,” said Council member Cherie Kidd.
The council approved the contract in a 4-3 vote — with Kidd, Mania and Brad Collins opposed — after Public Works and Utilities Director Glenn Cutler defended the price tag.
Cutler said the bridge, which will be part of the Olympic Discovery Trail, will be 200 feet long and cross a 40-foot ravine over Dry Creek once it’s completed by the end of the year.
It will also carry a sewer line that will connect the Lower Elwha Klallam tribe to the city’s sewer system and electrical lines for two new treatment plants associated with the National Park Service’s Elwha Dam removal project.
When addressing concerns over the cost of the new contract Tuesday, he said that he was also surprised by the cost at first glance, and acknowledged, as Kidd pointed out, the bridge’s design will be about 25 percent of the bridge’s $673,100 total cost.
State grant funding and contributions from the tribe and Peninsula Trails Coalition will cover most of that cost, with the city’s total contribution coming in at about $230,000.
“I had similar questions as Kidd had when it was first brought to me on what the fee was,” said Cutler, referring to Exeltech’s contract.
He said that the “rule of thumb” is that the design cost for a construction project will be about 15 percent of the total budget.
But, Cutler added, overhead expenses tend to make up a larger portion of the budget for smaller projects such as this one. After vetting the contract, he said he was comfortable with its price tag.
Reason for contract
Council members Mania, Kidd, Collins and Pat Downie also questioned why the city needs to pay someone else to do this work and why some of Exeltech’s previous contracts did not stick to their original amount.
When addressing the reason for the contract, Cutler said it’s an issue of staffing — the city can’t afford the additional engineers.
He said the city interviewed two other applicants, Berger/Abam Engineering, Inc. and Claussen Engineering, for the contract, and Exeltech was determined to be the most qualified.
No bids were taken. Cutler said state law prohibits bids on “professional services.”
He also defended the allotment of construction management contracts to Exeltech for the Eighth Street bridges, The Gateway, and last year’s Peabody Street reconstruction projects after Collins questioned the ability of the company to come in under budget.
“I’m troubled by this decision I have to make tonight,” Collins said.
“It appears to me from past projects, that this firm has reaped cost overruns.”
Collins was referring to the construction of the Eighth Street bridges and The Gateway.
With the bridges, Exeltech’s original contract was for $2.7 million in 2006 and included bridge design and construction management.
Additional jobs
At the end of the project, the contract ended up being $4.94 million after the project timeline was lengthened and Exeltech was given additional jobs to complete.
Some of the additional work included redoing the design of the bridges once the city chose to use concrete rather than steel; designing a “wetland mitigation” plan; conducting a traffic analysis; the creation and monitoring of a storm water pollution prevention plan; and several other “unanticipated” documentation requirements, according to the eight contract amendments.
Due to additional work and a seven-month delay on construction of The Gateway, Exeltech’s contract for construction management of that project started at about $450,000 in 2007 and ended up being about $650,000.
Cutler acknowledged that there had been contract amendments with both projects, but he feels that they were justified.
The two bridges, which Cutler said were together ranked eighth in Roads and Bridges magazine’s list of top 10 bridge projects of 2008, were complete in February 2009, about three months passed the original deadline of November 2008. The Gateway was also scheduled to be completed the same month, but wasn’t open until June 2009.
Cutler didn’t blame Exeltech for the delays, and said the city needed to pay them more to cover additional work.
Completion of the bridges was first pushed back 45 days by “poor” soil at one end of a bridge and later by weather-related delays as the project pushed into winter.
The Gateway was delayed due to cracks that developed underneath a horizontal support beam.
Cutler told the PDN that Exeltech can’t be blamed for that delay, since the cracks developed due to a failure in design and the company began managing construction after the design had been approved.
Exeltech was also paid $50,650 for management of the Peabody Street reconstruction project; $53,500 as an engineering consultant for designing a wider Lauridsen Boulevard bridge near Race Street; and $15,840 to help the city put together a large grant application.
Exeltech could not be reached for comment Wednesday.
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Reporter Tom Callis can be reached at 360-417-3532 or at tom.callis@peninsuladailynews.com.
