Crews will reinstall sewer line

City official says bridge consultant will cover cost

MICHAEL BURNHAM, THE OLYMPIAN

Originally published Wednesday, March 13, 2002

OLYMPIA -- Starting today, Fourth Avenue bridge project construction workers will remove and reinstall sewer pipes that were buried at the wrong depth.

After burying about 300 feet of 15-inch sewer pipes 8 feet beneath Olympic Way, construction officials learned Feb. 14 that the new sewer line was too shallow.

The sewer pipes should be 13 feet underground in order to connect with existing pipes along Fourth Avenue and West Bay Drive.

Bridge project manager Tom Frare said the sewer segment's design, which was completed by The Shea Group, an Olympia-based consulting company, incorrectly listed the sewer pipe's depth.

Frare, who was Olympia's lead engineer when the design was submitted to the city, reviewed the design prior to construction.

"In order to have found this error, you would almost have to start at ground zero of the design," Frare said. "This is one of those things that would be most difficult to suspect, unless the original data was wrong."

Engineers disagree

Those who designed the sewer project contend that the original data was indeed wrong.

The Shea Group used a topographic base map provided by the city as its primary source of information.

The age of the underground utilities -- and several discrepancies contained in the map -- made it difficult for designers to locate the sewer line, The Shea Group's Marcy Gustafson said.

However, Gustafson said it is still unclear why the final design listed the pipe's depth incorrectly.

"The issue with the sewer started with the base map information that wasn't correct, and we based our design on that information," Gustafson said. "If the base map had been correct from Day 1, there would not have been an error."

Frare said he will not investigate how or why the design error occurred.

"I've no reason to try to determine why they read it that way," Frare said. "My only goal is to make sure it gets done in a timely manner and we're able to renegotiate the work at a reasonable cost."

The consultant -- not the city -- will bear the additional cost of redesigning and reinstalling the sewer line, Frare said.

The entire 1,700-foot sewer segment will run south from West Bay Drive to the eastern foot of the future Fourth Avenue bridge.

About 400 feet of the sewer segment must be redesigned. About 75 feet of the 300 feet of piping that was installed last month must be replaced.

"It shouldn't cost taxpayers any more money," Frare said.

Although the city and the consultant had not agreed to the redesigned project's cost as of Tuesday afternoon, Frare said work will begin today.

The new work will take less than a week to complete.

The work will not change the bridge's anticipated completion date of June 2004, Frare said.

Line broke earlier

Heavy rains and the Nisqually Earthquake might have caused the more than 40-year-old sewer line to break on Nov. 14, city officials said.

About 1.5 million gallons of sewage ran into Budd Inlet before the leak near Olympic Way and the West Bay Drive intersection was repaired.

The sewage, which included human waste diluted by heavy rain, was not significant enough to present health risks to humans, city officials said.

Temporary pipe repairs were completed Nov. 17.

The Olympian Copyright 2002

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