Scope of Water Tower Project Increases

CAPE MAY- It may be a case of “While you’re up there, you might as well fix it.”
At a Nov. 20 meeting, City Council approved a change order of $138,930 to Allied Painting for additional repairs to the city’s Madison Avenue Water Tower.
At a Nov. 7 meeting, Ray Roberts, the city’s contracted engineer from Remington, Vernick, told council structural deficiencies had been found in the water tower’s sway and wind rods. He said the contractor recommended the rods be replaced due to a significant amount of deterioration.
Roberts recommended replacing all the rods when considering the overall scope of the project.
“They are to the point where in five to 10 years, we’ll have to do something significant with them if we don’t do it know,” he said.
Roberts said the increased cost falls within the construction budget using a U.S.D.A. grant without affecting another project on Canning House Lane. He said originally the project was priced at $1.2 million.
With the change order, the cost would increase to $1.4 million with $125,000 remaining in the construction line item. Roberts said the contractor estimated six to eight weeks for the rods to be manufactured and delivered to the work site.
He said he did not think the contractor would need to work on Saturdays to keep the project on time. The extra work could become an issue if severe weather occurs in February and March because the contractor could not work on lifts if wind speeds exceeds 28 miles per hour.
“If we get a situation where we have a bad winter, we may need to reconsider the Saturday work on the rods,” said Roberts.
He said he was not recommending an extension of the time period for the project to be finished. The contract specifies a completion date of May 13. 2013.