PORT ANGELES — The discovery of a new patch of fuel-contaminated soil at the construction site of the Port Angeles Medical Office Building will add more than $200,000 to the cost of the ongoing project, the Olympic Medical Center chief financial officer said.
When completed, the 42,000-square-foot building at 930 Caroline St. will include examination rooms, doctors’ offices, laboratories and primary-care and urgent-care clinics in the area of the hospital.
Darryl Wolfe, chief financial officer, told hospital commissioners Wednesday that the construction crew had reported the contaminated soil.
“I did receive a call on [May 13] from a very concerned general contractor that they had found more contaminated soil in the ground,” he said.
“They found . . . about 1,735 tons of fuel-oil-soaked soil. The excavation of that — the backfilling of that and all the hauling of that soil . . . is a $204,585 change order [that] was unavoidable.”
Board members will consider approving the change order during their next meeting in June.
2nd contaminated area
On Feb. 3, construction crews found a separate patch of contaminated soil at the same construction site but in a different area.
The cost to clean it up was $147,944.
Commissioners approved that expense in early April.
The contaminated soil in both cases was believed to have been caused by diesel leaking from old fuel tanks that have long since been removed.
Additional costs
Several additions have been made to the overall cost of the new medical office building since construction began last year.
Originally budgeted for $16.35 million, current estimates place the actual cost at about $18 million.
In April, commissioners approved $930,611 in change orders for the Port Angeles Medical Office Building, with another $1,085,414 to furnish the building when completed.
The change orders approved in April included $190,243 for exterior infrastructure in the 930 Caroline St., area and $592,424 for emergency power infrastructure that will provide electricity to the new office building when the main grid is disrupted, although the hospital will receive a $15,000 credit for the electrical project, Wolfe said.
Additional change orders were introduced Wednesday, with the commissioners slated to consider them during their next meeting in June, Wolfe said.
Those change orders include funding for a vertical vapor barrier system in the walls of the new building designed to keep moisture out of the interior and upgrades to the roof design, Wolfe said.
Vapor barrier
“At this phase in the project, we have consulted with an envelope consultant, and what they do is they take a look at the structure of the building and make suggestions on things that we may or may not want to do with respect to moisture control inside the building,” Wolfe said.
“They had two recommendations for us. One is a vertical vapor barrier system. That will be a $38,000 addition, but that would give us a better, longer-lasting vapor barrier.”
The consultants also recommended an additional rooftop barrier, he continued.
“The way the roof is currently configured, there will be 5 inches of concrete with a waterproof membrane on top of that,” he said.
“That is up to code . . . however, the envelope consultant has suggested that we consider putting something between the membrane and the concrete.”
While the membrane already budgeted for the rooftop is “fairly durable,” Wolfe said, “over time, it can degrade, and what we want to do is make sure if [it] is somehow punctured in the next 20 years, there is an additional membrane in there to keep it from leaking.”
The additional layer would be placed in between the previously planned membrane and the concrete, he said, and would cost an additional $36,000 to what has already been approved.
“It is not cheap insurance but seems like good insurance,” Wolfe said.
“When you think of the long term of the building and the moisture control aspects that we need to adhere to, it makes some sense.”
Construction continues
Despite setbacks and additional costs, construction of the building is moving along at a good pace, Wolfe said.
“You can see it is in its big phase right now,” he said.
“All the steel is up, the walls are up” and work to pour concrete for the roof and stairwells was the next step, he said last week.
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Reporter Chris McDaniel can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 56650, or cmcdaniel@peninsuladailynews.com.
