The Snoqualmie City Council approved a resolution on July 9 awarding the public works contract to stabilize the Canyon Springs Waterline Slope Repair Project to GeoStabilization International, LLC.
In December 2017, public works employees discovered evidence of a small landslide at a site along the north fork of the Snoqualmie River, Canyon Springs, where a spring box water collection facility is located.
The landslide was determined to have occurred in November, and stretched 90 feet in height and 150 feet in width across the hillside at Canyon Springs. Another landslide at the site could break the pipes used for the city’s water collection and risk a segment of the city’s water supply. As the Record reported in January, a city analysis showed that another landslide could break the pipe alignment if any other land movement happens.
Jeff Hamlin, project engineer at the city, presented a resolution to the council awarding the Colorado-based GeoStabilization International the public works contract to stabilize the hillside, as they were the lowest responsive, responsible bidder. The low bid price was $715,768.10, excluding sales tax. The funding sources for the project are for the $55 million Utilities Capital Improvement Plan, council member James Mayhew said.
The contractor will use an anchored mesh technique to stabilize the hillside. Council member Bob Jeans asked Hamlin about when the work would start and end as he was worried that the work would extend so far into the year that fall and winter weather would become a problem for the crews.
Hamlin said that with the approval of the resolution from the council, he would issue a notice to GeoStabilization International the next day, and estimated that work would begin in about two weeks from that point.
“Towards the third week of this month, the contractor will mobilize,” Hamlin said. “Ninety working days is what I gave them. I want to have the majority of the heavier construction, the drilling and the mesh stabilization fabric attached and down by the middle of October, and then they can do some of the restoration work after that. I want the majority of the heavy work and I want the equipment out of there by October before it gets wet.”
The resolution was approved unanimously in a 5-0 vote with council members Bryan Holloway and Matt Laase were absent.
The council also unanimously approved an agenda bill eliminating two management intern positions and instead replacing them with a two-year, full-time equivalent management fellow. Finance Director Robert Hamud said staff was looking for additional help for the next budgeting process and said that the fellowship program would attract highly qualified recent graduates looking to get experience in city government.
With a relatively new team and a new budget process to work with (including integrating council goals and objectives), Hamud said having an extra person qualified in the department would be helpful.
They already have some good applicants and have conducted some interviews.
The two, four-month intern positions cost the city $27,000 per year, the new fellowship, assuming a start date of Aug. 1, would cost $37,000 for 2018. The full-year salary for the fellowship position is $52,000 plus benefits, Hamud said.
“The two year program is to get them experience in local government,” he said. “If they are looking for good generalist experience, preparing a 2 year budget is very good experience because exposed to all aspects of the organization.”
A city engineer stands by the site of the recent landslide at Canyon Springs. (Courtesy Photo)
