STONE HARBOR – Following a presentation by Thomas Thornton, of Mott MacDonald, on the causes of a dramatic hike in the estimated costs for the 93rd Street pump station, Mayor Judith Davies-Dunhour told the Borough Council that they would see “a motion in two weeks to terminate the agreement with Mott.”
In June, Council President Reese Moore informed the governing body that the estimated construction costs for the pump station had shot up from $11.5 million to $19.1 million.
At the July 19 meeting of the governing body, Thornton explained the unusually high hike in the estimate.
He listed four items as contributing to the price shift and then honed in on one that he felt was the major factor.
Thornton said some movement of the construction estimate was normal as a design moved from 75% complete to final, which is what happened with the pump station.
“Not everything is known at 75% completed,” he said.
The next factor was the new global supply chain problems relative to needed components of the design, especially the variety and amount of piping required.
Thornton went on to note the high general inflation that is hurting many construction projects, as the price of fuel, components, and labor drive up costs.
Thornton also spoke of the costs associated with a very tight space across private property to an outflow location into the bay.
Thornton’s major factor was the fact that the project was locked into a design criteria used to obtain a state grant for $2.7 million. He reminded the council that this grant was secured while a different engineering firm oversaw the project, a project which, at the time, had a cost estimate of $3 million.
Thornton indicated that the initial project called for five pump stations to cover the drainage area from 89th to 98th streets. One development in the pump station’s evolution was the consolidation of the project into one pump station at 93rd Street, covering the same drainage area.
The previous engineering firm on the project was instrumental in helping to set the design criteria, which Thornton explained was part of the grant application. That, Thornton appeared to be saying, embedded the design criteria as unchangeable. He admitted that Mott never questioned any changes to that criteria.
As Thornton stated, the design criteria was for the pump station to handle a five-year rain event under conditions of high tide and to ameliorate a 10-year rain event to the point where there is no more than nuisance flooding at some intersections in the drainage area.
He said when Mott took over the design challenge in 2019, any changes to the design criteria were constrained by the information that had been the basis for the grant.
According to Thornton, the other factors escalating costs for the project were also constrained by the commitment to an unchanging design criteria.
“The major factor in the increase in cost,” Thornton said, “is the design criteria.”
The 93rd Street pump station, a central aspect of the recently adopted Flood Mitigation Plan, has been “in the works” since 2017 and has had two of the area’s largest engineering firms in oversight roles. The estimated costs are now at levels no one anticipated and the agreement with the second of the two engineering firms is about to be terminated. A rethinking of the design is likely.
Moore responded to the question that would have been asked when he said the borough has expensed $500,000 so far on the pump station design. There was no comment made on whether any termination of the current agreement would increase that figure.
To contact Vince Conti, email vconti@cmcherald.com.
