ST. GEORGE — The Ivins City Council will make a decision on the approval of a nearly $91,000 expenditure for the Red Mountain Dams Rehabilitation project in a meeting Thursday.
The project’s original total was $219,753, but Bowen, Collins and Associates, the management engineer company for the project, filed a contract revision that added $91,971 to the overall cost for a final amount of $311,724.
Thomas Jorgensen, Ivins assistant public works director, asserted the city has budgeted the expense. All additional costs will be reimbursed to Ivins by the Natural Resources Conservation Service.
The Red Mountain Dams Rehabilitation project was recently completed and consisted of updating the six dams at the base of the Red Mountain in order to ensure each would meet safety regulations and engineering standards.
Each of the six dams is considered to be in a high hazard class, which Utah code specifies to mean that the dams have “a high probability of causing loss of human life or extensive economic loss” if they were to fail.
During the design and construction, Bowin, Collins and Associates had two subcontract fees for tortoise monitoring and materials testing. The Natural Resources Conservation Service and Utah State Dam Safety also advised the engineering company and the city that the spillway design and material would need to be adapted, adding to the amount.
BCA contracted Platt Environmental to oversee tortoise monitoring. The company was tasked with identifying potential burrows and locating active tortoises. If either of these two instances occurred, the Natural Resources Conservation Service would be notified, and the company would work to continue monitoring the tortoises as they safely worked their way through the construction site. The cost of these services was $34,988.
Landmark Testing and Engineering was subcontracted to conduct material testing throughout the project. The organization inspected construction materials, such as rebar and concrete, and examined the placement of concrete as well as soil compaction. The overall cost of services was $26,988.
BCA also reported in the breakdown of additional costs that the design phase of the project was $29,995 over budget due to recommended changes by the Natural Resources Conservation Service and Utah State Dam Safety. The project originally called for two grouted riprap spillway structures, but due to some concerns, these were changed to concrete, which required more structural and geotechnical design.
The Ivins City Council is expected to take action on Jorgensen’s recommendation to approve the expenditure Thursday at 5:30 p.m.
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