BLAIR, NEBRASKA (2024 December 22, Sunday)
Don Harrold, Writer / Editor
blairtoday@mail.com – Facebook
A stuck pipe and skyrocketing costs that far exceeded industry pricing standards have derailed Blair’s $4.3 million water line project for Cargill, the city’s largest employer and a crucial utility customer. According to a Blair Water Supply Resiliency Project report, the Cargill biocampus uses 10-15 million gallons of water daily, compared to 1-4 million gallons used by Blair’s 8,000 residential and rural customers.
The water infrastructure supporting Blair’s biocampus has been marked for significant investment. In September 2022, the U.S. Department of Commerce and WOWT reported that Blair received a $1.5 million Economic Development Administration grant for waterline expansion, matched with $2 million in local funds, to increase water capacity at the biocampus.
“We were seeing more than double and nearly triple on some items from the original bid,” said Public Works Director C.J. Heaton. “HDR also compares the prices we get on bids to other projects they and other firms are working on to ensure that we are getting a fair price. We did not feel we were getting that in this case.”
The project’s troubles began in May, according to August 13 city council minutes, when a 1700-foot-long section of water main got stuck about 500 feet in after a pull head broke off from the cable. While contractors successfully removed that stuck line weeks later, a second attempt in late June resulted in the line getting stuck again, this time about 1,100 feet in.
“We worked with MC Wells and both of the subcontractors to discuss options for attempting to remove the stuck pipe, unfortunately, nothing worked,” Heaton explained.
“The contractor brought in some very heavy-duty equipment to try and get the pipe out.”
By June 26, only about 45% of the job was complete despite the contract completion date having passed. This led to pursuing an alternative route. “We mutually agreed to have HDR draft an alternative route to complete the project. That work took some time and required additional permits from UPRR and easements from an adjacent property,” Heaton said. “The original route was entirely in the ROW along Industrial Drive and was to be bored under existing utilities. With the pipe being stuck we had no other options but to re-route the water line. That new proposed route is to take the line east, under the rail spur that runs along Industrial Drive, and open cut the trench in the corn field north of CF Industries.”
The project now faces both an EDA grant deadline in March and Cargill’s desire to have water in the line by spring, according to the council minutes. “We do not have a clear answer on this at this time, some contractual steps now happening, and potentially an investigation by MC Wells’s bond company to help determine who is at fault for the stuck pipe,” Heaton said.
The city hopes to minimize additional costs. “We hope that since we have an alternative route designed, we can work with the bond company to move forward with the alternative route while investigating the issues with the failed attempt. Any costs above and beyond the contract amount or any valid change orders may be filed as a claim against the bond held by MC Wells,” Heaton explained. “All that to say we hope that any extra costs associated with the stuck pipe will be covered by the bond, which is essentially an insurance policy. As for the timeline, we will know more in the coming weeks, Cargill has been great to work with on this and is understanding of the setbacks.”
Addressing questions about HDR Engineering’s role, Heaton defended their work. “I want to be clear that the City of Blair has no concerns with HDR and the design work that was done or the assistance they have provided throughout the project. HDR has been in step with us for the project and they are great to work with.”
The City Council has approved a $10,000 amendment for HDR to develop two revised water main alignments, according to the council minutes. Additionally, “The City Council did approve staff to hire a third-party expert in directional boring to help us determine what happened and if best practices were followed. We are doing this as a pre-emptive step to ensure that going forward we do not have this problem again,” Heaton said.
“With the new design, we will not have to have such a long directional bore, and hope that this alternative will be much easier to install.”
