Work on Grand Drive nears completion
With the majority of the invasive
construction work on the Grand Drive portion of the Bigfork
Stormwater Project complete, the crew is now preparing to bring the
new water treatment system online.
“Currently, the infrastructure is
installed. Now we are working on restoration,” said Brett Walcheck
of 48 North Civil Engineering Services.
According to Walcheck, the conveyance
lines, catch basins and treatment units are in place. The crew is
still working on installing primary treatment components, such as
the filter cartridges that were recently put into the Jellyfish
unit on Grand Drive. Those components are responsible for pulling
particles out of the water before it is released into the bay.
Currently, the inlet and outlet for the
main treatment system are plugged, meaning no water is entering the
unit for treatment.
The Stormceptor unit, which will
eventually feed water into the main unit, is the only part of the
system that is up and running at this time. That unit removes large
particles from the water before sending it to the Jellyfish, which
filters out finer particles and pollutants.
At present, water released by the
Stormceptor unit bypasses the Jellyfish and flows directly into the
bay.
Even after installation has been
completed, Walcheck said there are still a few more steps that must
be taken before the entire system can go online and start treating
stormwater.
Those steps include restoration and
clean-up.
The crew has finished repaving the
road, but there is sidewalk reconstruction work that has yet to be
completed.
“There were a few areas where we had to
pull concrete out if it interfered with the flow pattern we were
trying to achieve,” Walcheck said. “And we also plan to replace
some of the dilapidated sections of the sidewalk.”
The areas of road surrounding the
manhole covers also need to be filled with concrete, Walcheck
said.
After that work is complete, the crew
will clean the construction site, catch basins and surrounding
roadways to remove any lingering debris.
“I’d say restoration is at about the 80
percent level right now,” Walcheck said.
Walcheck anticipates that there will be
workers out on the roadway for about two more weeks, but he doesn’t
expect any major traffic disruptions during that time.
“I think we have the majority of the
road closures out of the way,” he said.
The crew must also install Filterra
units at the north end of Grand Drive before the construction
contract expires.
Walcheck doesn’t know when those units
will go in, but he said bringing the rest of the system online
beforehand is “a definite possibility” depending on when the units
arrive on site.
“If their (the Filterra company’s)
timeline is a ways out, we might go ahead and bring the system
online before they get here,” Walcheck said.
At the May 25 Bigfork Stormwater
Advisory Committee meeting, Walcheck announced the approval of a
change order for two additional work items. Those include the
repair of the rock armored wall on the north side of Grand Drive
and the installation of a slipline in an existing pipe near the
Jellyfish outfall.
As a result of heavy spring rain and
vibration from construction equipment, part of the armoring on the
rock wall sloughed, creating a six to eight-inch gap.
“We’re going to install new stones and
grout to fix that,” Walcheck said, adding that no heavy equipment
will be needed for that project.
The slipline consists of a heavy-duty
liner that seals the pipe, making it “structurally sound and smooth
so that any water traveling down is kept within the pipe,” Walcheck
said.
The slipline will be placed inside the
storm line near the outfall for the new Jellyfish unit. That storm
line was the only existing pipe that was not replaced during the
project.
“That line was too difficult to replace
because of the location, so instead of replacing it, we’re going to
rehabilitate it,” Walcheck said.
According to Walcheck, the change order
will not push the total price of the project over the contractor’s
budget.
Although the 80-day construction
contract expires July 1, the contractor has the option of filing
for “substantial completion” when most of the work is finished.
That would essentially “stop the clock” on the contract, Walcheck
said.
But even if the project runs past the
original deadline, Walcheck said that by that point, construction
disruptions would be minimal.
“There may be maintenance people out
there finalizing details around that time, but the majority of the
work that impacts traffic in the Bigfork area is anticipated to be
finalized in the next couple of weeks,” Walcheck said.
Rural Special Improvement District
Also at the May 25 meeting, BSAC
members continued to work on establishing a Rural Special
Improvement District (RSID) to help fund the remainder of the
Bigfork Stormwater Project.
The first step in the process involves
sending out a survey to local taxpayers.
The group edited a two-page draft of
background information and survey questions down to a single page,
which will eventually be mailed out to area residents to gauge
interest in and knowledge of the project.
“We want to see what level of awareness
there is out there about the project,” said BSAC chairman Sue
Hanson.
The survey will also help the committee
determine how large the district will be.
“Part of our reason for doing this is
to see what our response is,” Hanson said. “We want to see if we
get interest from the further-out districts.”
The final cost of the survey has not
yet been determined, and it must be approved by county
commissioners before it is mailed.
The next regular BSAC meeting is set
for 12:30 p.m. on June 29 at Bethany Lutheran Church.
For more information on the project,
visit the stormwater page at www.bigforksteering.org or contact Sue
Hanson at 837-5323.
For more information on design and
construction, contact Brett Walcheck at 756-4848.