PORT ANGELES — Construction of a sewer extension at Fairchild International Airport for future airplane hangars will cost the Port of Port Angeles more than twice the budgeted amount of $300,000, escalating to $750,000.
The original estimates did not account for obstructive underground utilities that were not investigated, an electrical line that was added to the project, and a 50 percent increase in lineal feet of sewer pipe, Director of Engineering Chris Hartman said at Tuesday’s port commissioners meeting.
The total cost of the project, which will provide utilities to new hangar areas, will increase to more than $900,000 when a long-term loan to finance it is paid off.
Port commissioners Steven Burke, Colleen McAleer and Connie Beauvais agreed to move forward Tuesday with a May 22 call for bids, although Hartman said he did not require their consent.
“Because this project has significantly expanded in scope and budget, we wanted direction from port commissioners,” he told them.
Funding of $300,000 had been set aside in the tax district’s 2020 capital projects budget.
Now funding will come from the operations budget to pay back a 20-year, 2-percent-interest state Community Aviation Revitalization Board loan, administered by the state Department of Transportation.
The total project cost will be $917,000 over two decades, Deputy Executive Director John Nutter said Tuesday in a text message after the meeting.
“Fortunately, this project will allow the port to construct and lease out new airplane hangars and generate lease revenue that is more than the cost while providing opportunities for new businesses to get established and grow at our airport,” Nutter said.
Hartman told commissioners additional costs included laying a revised length of 2,000 lineal feet of sewer main compared to the 1,300 feet that was budgeted.
“Multiple conflicts with existing water mains were discovered,” Hartman said.
A water main has to be extended by 250 feet and sections of sewer line encased, both unanticipated costs. Potable water service and power lines also were added.
Bids for the project will be opened in June, construction will start in September, and it will be completed by Oct. 31, Hartman said.
He said later Tuesday that commissioners had asked for a project budget for 2020 construction last September or October. Port commissioners approve an annual spending plan in December.
“The project was rushed,” Hartman said.
He said that, typically, planning and investigation for such an undertaking would occur over a year in order to produce an accurate, comprehensive budget, with construction to follow.
Conceptual planning that is normally included in a budget consists of site investigation and topographical mapping.
“Our construction estimate was based on an assumed alignment without having done all that other work,” he said.
Instead, commissioners wanted the budget almost immediately after discussing it last fall, he said.
“We sent them a kind of back-of-the-napkin estimate on what it should cost,” Hartman said.
The port consultant’s subsequent site investigation, conducted after the project was budgeted, revealed underground utility conflicts that required sewer line realignment and reinstallation of four sections of existing water main, Hartman said in his staff report.
Private interests are talking to port officials about wanting new hangars at the airport “but utility services are needed to make that commitment,” he added.
Burke, the port commissioners’ president, said later Tuesday that the scope of the project was able to expand because of the loan.
“To do all the detail work before you know you are going to get the [loan] is not cost effective,” he said.
“If we had more time, we would have done more of the detail work,” Burke added.
“We had to do it on a much quicker time frame.
“If it was just the customer, we could have drawn out the process longer. But we needed enough detail to apply for the loan.
“We had to get something on paper.”
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Senior Staff Writer Paul Gottlieb can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 55650, or at pgottlieb@peninsuladailynews.com.
