It will cost more to repair the regional reservoir and expand its capacity than it cost to initially build the structure, according to a proposal that will go before Tampa Bay Water later this month.Agency staff will ask the board of directors on June 20 to spend $162.4 million with Kiewit Infrastructure Group of Omaha, Neb. to repair cracks to the C.W. Bill Young Regional Reservoir.
The repair job also would expand the capacity of the reservoir by 3 billion gallons – from 15.5 billion gallons to 18.5 billion gallons.The vote comes a month before a federal lawsuit against HDR Engineering Inc., designer of the original structure, is scheduled to go to trial.
The reservoir has cracking problems in the thin layer of soil cement and also suffers from poor drainage, officials have said."We had never anticipated having to spend this kind of money to fix this facility," said Michelle Rapp, spokeswoman for Tampa Bay Water. "But it's a very important facility.
It needs to be fixed. It has become a cornerstone of our system."It is hoped that the federal lawsuit against HDR will recover much of the cost of the repairs and expansion, Rapp said.Tampa Bay Water has reached settlements with Barnard Construction, the contractor, and CDG, which provided construction management.
If the board OKs the contract with Kiewit, it will take a year for permitting and design, Rapp said. Construction on the project would begin in September 2012 and it would take two years to complete.The reservoir, which currently holds nearly 8 billion gallons of water from the Alafia River and the Tampa Bypass Canal, would have to be drained for the project.
No comments:
Post a Comment