PORT ANGELES — The Gateway transit center could be completed by the end of the week, but the total cost of the project will remain unknown.
The structural repair to the eastern foundation wall of the $14.7 million downtown project’s pavilion — which consists of a 7-foot-long slab of concrete reinforced with rebar — was completed last week, and upon completion of inspections, the pavilion could be opened by Friday, city officials have said.
But the city, Clallam Transit and the two engineering firms that designed The Gateway still need to resolve one big question — who is responsible for covering the costs accrued over the seven months of delays?
Answering that question may depend upon determining who is responsible for the delays in the first place.
That has been a point of contention among the parties involved since the large crack in the eastern foundation wall of the project’s pavilion was first analyzed in September.
Unpaid invoices
While city staff say that all of the project’s costs will be on the table during upcoming discussions with Clallam Transit, Krei Architecture and its subcontractor, Bright Engineering, the first item of discussion may be unpaid invoices from Krei, which total $46,456.32
Those invoices cover the design of the structural repair to the foundation wall, which the city has declined to pay because it considers that work to be covered under Krei’s contract, said Glenn Cutler, city public works and utilities director.
Exeltech, the firm from Olympia that was hired to manage The Gateway’s construction, also is seeking compensation for about five months of work this year that occurred after its contract expired. Figures on how much Exeltech is seeking in compensation were unavailable as of Friday.
The Gateway — which includes 169 parking spaces, a transit lane, office for the Police Department’s downtown resource officer, a clock tower and the pavilion — is a joint project between the city and Clallam Transit. Construction began in June 2007 and was scheduled to be completed last November.
Most of the parking spaces at The Gateway were opened on May 22, and the transit lane was opened on April 13.
The Gateway is funded with $8.1 million in state and federal grants, $6.1 million in city funds and $500,000 from Clallam Transit.
Budgeted costs
Any additional costs to The Gateway could push the project over budget. The city would have to cover those costs as stipulated in its agreement with Clallam Transit for the project.
As of April 30, there was $84,665 left in the budget for cost overruns.
Since then, the city has approved the structural repair, about $22,000, and a jury ruled in Clallam County Superior Court that a property owner will have to be paid an additional $56,132 in compensation for property acquired for the project.
That leaves about $6,533 in the budget for The Gateway.
City Manager Kent Myers said the final cost of the project should be known by the end of the month, but Clallam Transit attorney Craig Miller said that, due to the complexity of the issues, it will likely take much longer than that.
Resolving the unsettled financial costs depends upon all of the parties involved finding common ground, which has been a problem that has plagued the project since the fall.
Disagreements
The seven months of delays were essentially the result of disagreements among the city, Krei and Bright over how to handle the pavilion’s structural issue, according to city staff.
Repairs to the pavilion’s foundation wall were proposed by Bright last fall, but city staff members did not accept them.
Cutler and Nathan West, city building official and economic and community development director, said the engineering firm did not provide enough information to determine the cause of the cracks or the calculations that showed the proposed repairs complied with building code and that the structure could handle the additional weight from cement poured on the plaza floor of the pavilion.
“Despite multiple meetings, dedication of staff time, and hiring of an engineer, project proponents have failed to fully address these concerns,” West wrote in the stop work notice issued for The Gateway on Nov. 21.
West approved the repair, designed by Bright, on April 24.
The head engineers from Krei and Bright maintained that sufficient information had been provided and questioned the validity of the city’s requests for more information, according to e-mails and letters reviewed through public records requests to the city and Clallam Transit.
“Also, for reasons we do not understand, questions we have answered and referenced repeatedly continue to be asked,” wrote Jim Dugan, Krei senior project manager, to Clallam Transit General Manager Terry Weed on Oct. 7.
Representatives from Krei and Bright declined to comment or didn’t return phone calls requesting interviews for this article.
Because of disagreements among the city, Krei and Bright, Clallam Transit hired its own engineering consultant, Berger/Abam Engineers Inc. of Seattle, in December.
Berger/Abam issued a report in January on the cause of the cracks, which was accepted by the city and the other engineering firms.
The cracks, discovered last summer, were caused by additional stress placed in the wall when the support beam was “post-tensioned,” with which high-strength steel tendons are tensioned with jacks to provide additional strength, Berger/Abam concluded.
The additional stress occurred because the southeast corner of the wall connects with the southern and eastern walls at a 45-degree angle rather than a 90-degree angle, the report said.
As part of a change order, the 45-degree angle was chosen to avoid affecting the foundation of a street light at Front and Lincoln streets, according to Cutler.
In several e-mails, Krei and Bright representatives blamed delays on the city for what they considered to be unnecessary rejections of repair proposals and for not allowing the plaza deck to be loaded with cement, which had to precede the repair, until Feb. 4.
“The project has been delayed by the failure of the city of Port Angeles building official to accept the structural engineer of records direction to load the plaza deck on schedule on Sept. 2, 2008,” Dugan wrote to Weed on Jan. 7.
Shared frustration
Weed said that he shared some of Krei’s frustrations, but wouldn’t go as far as to blame the city for the delays.
“The city building official refused to accept the architectural and engineering information as stated,” he said.
“They requested a lot of information. To the layman who doesn’t know engineering,” he said, referring to himself, “it seemed like a lot of questions.”
The city used Zenovic and Associates of Port Angeles as its engineering consultant on the cracks at The Gateway.
Although the engineer from Zenovic, Tracy Grudgel, working on the issue isn’t a certified structural engineer — which was a point of issue with Krei — West said the engineer was qualified for the task.
“He is familiar with the structural code and there are no requirements that you have to be a structural engineer,” West said, adding that Grudgel handles all of the city’s structural reviews.
West said, with no hesitation, that all requests from Krei and Bright to provide more information on the cause and proposed repairs for the cracks from himself and Grudgel were necessary and justified.
“We were ensuring that the project met code,” he said. “That’s my job — to ensure that it meets code.”
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Reporter Tom Callis can be reached at 360-417-3532 or at tom.callis@peninsuladailynews.com.
