City of Bainbridge Island amends budget to account for costly street project

Published 1:30 am Friday, December 16, 2016

The city of Bainbridge Island’s biggest street project of the year ended up over budget — by six figures.

City council members approved an amendment to the 2016 budget at their meeting this week to straighten out the numbers for the Wing Point Way improvement project.

City officials said the project went over budget by $150,000, and blamed weather delays and changes to the design plans for the cost overruns.

Documents obtained by the Review through a request under the Open Public Records Act, however, show the problems with the project were much more extensive.

According to change orders approved after construction began, the problems included:

• Errors in federal and state wage rates in the city’s original bid package. Before the bids were opened, federal and state wages hadn’t been updated in the bid package;

• Errors in the construction plan’s location of an existing 6-inch water main;

• Errors in survey/topographical information given to the contractor that resulted in the addition of an 18-inch storm pipe and catch basins to handle high-water storm flows;

• Plans that didn’t show the steep terrain on the existing roadway embankment, and geotechnical engineering work found the existing soils would not support a rock wall near the location of a needed sidewalk;

• Errors in design cross-sections that didn’t account for necessary excavation of the roadway. More work and equipment was needed than originally planned for the road rebuild, including a bulldozer, roller compactor, grader and large excavator. Additional roadway survey staking was also needed, as well as the replacement of four monuments during roadway construction. Additional traffic control was also needed, as well as additional material hauling for the roadway work. Higher costs were also added for water brought in for dust control; and

• Errors in bid quantities set in the original bid set plan for material removal and backfill in water and storm utility trenches.

Work on the $3.3 million project started last spring and wrapped up earlier this year.

The project spanned a 3,300-foot-long stretch of Wing Point Way from Ferncliff Avenue to Park Avenue, and included reconstruction of the surface of the roadway, stormwater drainage, and water and sewer line improvements. Uphill climbing lanes for bicyclists and a sidewalk for pedestrians were added on the north side of Wing Point Way.

The city received a $1.3 million grant from the Federal Highway Administration in 2013 to help pay for the project.

Plans and the design of the project was handled by HDR Engineering, a Gig Harbor company that was awarded a $303,398 contract by the city of Bainbridge Island in July 2013.

When asked if the city could seek reimbursement from its design consultants to help cover the costs of the overruns, city spokeswoman Kellie Stickney indicated that wasn’t possible.

“The designer is responsible for the design errors and omissions. The city cannot seek reimbursement to cover the additional costs as we would have had to pay those additional costs regardless if the design had been originally accurate,” Stickney said in an email to the Review. “The designer would only be potentially liable for damage done that is above and beyond (e.g. if an individual was injured based on a flaw in the design and that individual made a claim against the city).”

Still, Stickney said the city would learn from its work on Wing Point Way.

“At the completion of every project the city analyzes the project in its entirety and takes necessary measures to avoid repeating similar errors on future projects,” she said. “Though often things occur on construction projects that are out of the city’s control, the public works department is very serious about continuous learning and improvement.”