By Neil Farrell
Click here to view the sewer project cost breakdown.
County Supervisors recently signed off on a big contract as part of the Los Osos community sewer project, and a new report on the costs so far, was released by the County.
A final notice of completion on the contract to install pump stations within the collection system was approved with Mountain Cascade, Inc. The contract was for more than $9.2 million and has no outstanding issues or claims.
Mountain Cascade got the contract in August 2012. The job started in October that year and was completed this past March (2015). Among the particularly tricky parts of this job was a huge underground lift station down on 2nd Street in Baywood Park, which had major de-watering issues because of high groundwater levels.
Also, Supervisors approved another change order in the contract with Carollo Engineers, which designed the sewer treatment plant located out behind the cemetery.
Work on the treatment plant continues and is scheduled to be completed sometime next March. Carollo has been involved during its construction, too.
It’s original contract was for more than $4.5 million. The first contract amendment was for “additional service during design phase” at $151,000. There were no costs associated with the second contract amendment that just revised the billing rates.
Third amendment was for “additional services for geotechnical and architectural construction phase support” at $62,800; and this newest amendment — for “additional services during construction” — is for $329,300, bringing its total contract amount for this project to $5.14 million.
Carollo’s continuing work is to inspect the construction compared to the design specs, and primarily to prepare any design modifications that come up and to do all the paperwork/reports for the contractor.
The County says it’s getting more work out of Carollo than the contract calls for. “Carollo has completed significantly more work than planned while staying within their original budget,” said John Waddell, the County’s project manager. “Overall, they processed approximately 50% more submittals and design changes than originally estimated. While the level of effort required is now decreasing, additional budget is needed for ongoing engineering services from the design team during the remaining year of construction and facility start-up.”
The staff report for Mountain Cascade includes a cost breakdown of the sewer, thus far.
The County put up $8.1 million to finance “pre-due diligence” through April 30, 2011.
Administration and preliminary engineering stands at $2.36M, and costs for environmental work and permitting has cost $4.9M (though $8.1M was budgeted).
Collection and water recycling system design and construction has cost $84.4M. But $89.5M was budgeted, so it appears this portion came in some $5M under budget, potentially with bills and/or claims still outstanding.
The treatment facility has cost thus far $38.5M but $62.3M was budgeted, leaving another $23.7M unspent. The construction contract for the plant was $50.6M and the contractor has been paid thus far some $29.6M, with more than $21M left to go.
All told, the County budgeted for a $183.3M overall project. So far it has spent a total of $148.5M, with $34.8M still left to spend.
