I could be misreading the docs I was given by CoCS. But it looks like there was a soil report done by a firm called Geotech. I don't think I have that one.
There is this language in addendum 2 of the scope of work:
THE CONTRACTOR SHALL REVIEW THE CIVIL DOCUMENTS, THE SOIL REPORT, AND THESE DOCUMENTS (ALL IN THEIR ENTIRETY) TO ENSURE THAT ALL REQUIRED EARTHWORK, PAVING, CURB, AND STRUCTURAL SLAB WORK IS FULLY COVERED IN THE SCOPE OF THE CONTRACTOR'S BID. THE CONTRACTOR SHALL FULLY COORDINATE ALL OF THE ABOVE REFERENCED WORK WITH THE OWNER'S REPRESENTATIVE, THE ARCHITECT, AND CIVIL ENGINEER TO ENSURE THAT ALL WORK IS FULLY COORDINATED AND COMPLETE.
Then there is section 8 of the actual contract:
8. NATURE OF THE WORK8.01 It is understood and agreed that the Contractor has, by careful examination, studied and compared the Plans and other Contract Documents, satisfied itself as to the nature and location of the Work, the conditions of the ground and soil, the nature of any structures, the character, quality, and quantity of the material to be utilized, the character of equipment and facilities needed for and during the prosecution of the Work, the time needed to complete the Work, Contractor's ability to meet all deadlines and schedules required by this Agreement, the general and local conditions, including but not limited to weather, and all other matters that in any way affect the Work under this Agreement. These obligations are for the purpose of facilitating construction by the Contractor and are not for the purpose of discovering errors, omissions, or inconsistencies in the Contract Documents; however, any errors, inconsistencies or omissions discovered, or which reasonably should have been discovered by the Contractor shall be reported promptly to the City as a request for information in such form as the City may require. However, the Contractor shall not perform any act or do any Work that places the safety of persons at risk or potentially damages materials or equipment used in the Project, and the Contractor shall do nothing that would render any test or tests erroneous.
8.02 Any design errors or omissions noted by the Contractor shall be reported promptly to the City, but it is recognized that the Contractor's review is made in the Contractor's capacity as a contractor and not as a licensed design professional unless otherwise specifically provided in the Contract Documents. Any nonconformity discovered by or which reasonably should have been discovered or made known to the Contractor shall be reported promptly to the City.
8.03 If the Contractor fails to perform the obligations of Sections 8.01. and 8.02., the Contractor shall pay such costs and damages to the City as would have been avoided if the Contractor had performed such obligations. The Contractor shall not be liable to the City for damages resulting from errors, inconsistencies or omissions in the Contract Documents or for differences between field measurements or conditions and the Contract Documents unless the Contractor recognized or reasonably should have recognized such error, inconsistency, omission or difference and knowingly failed to report it to the City.
I don't know if these are necessarily related to the problems that stopped the work, but some info from a April 2023 Change Order:
Additional Soil Testing: Unforeseen site conditions related to the in-situ subgrade soil require additional testing to determine the best methodology for treating pumping areas, soft subgrade, and poor workabiity. Additional testing will include four test pits in the parking lot area due to the concerns over the subgrade and depth to hard bottom that was found to be about 15-feet in depth during installation of storm sewer line C. Two test areas in the more noticably softer areas of subgrade will be conducted to evaluate methods of soil treatment. The first 30-foot by 50-foot test area will be excavated to 3-feet in depth, the excavated soil mixed, placed in 6-inch lifts, and compacted to grade. The second test area will be of the same size and methodology, but will included the mixing of lime with the excavated soil (approximately 2.5%-3%) prior to placement and compaction. The testing laboratory and the design team will evaluate these results and issue a reccomendation for subgrade treatment.
Storm Line C Trench Treatment: Storm Line C encountered issues of soft subgrade soils at and below the proposed flow line of the pipe. Contractor overexcavated the trench to find a workable soil strata that was located 5-feet below the bottom of the pipe design elevation. Contractor will excavate the rest of the line to hard bottom and replace excavated material with cement sand to within 1-foot of pipe bottom elevation and will grade and embed the pipe with cement sand withn the last remaining foot .
I don't have much experience with these kinds of contracts. But reading them, I think I could make a pretty good guess at what questions will need to be answered on August 24. Ideally Council would also take the opportunity to figure out "is this worth doing?" if they are seriously considering moving forward on the project after everything. I still think it is ridiculous that they didn't do that originally. But staff and maybe some on council were in a big hurry to get everything going before the bond vote. I wonder if that time crunch also led to these new issues that we are seeing now.
Brian Alg
Brazos Coalition for Responsible Government and Moderator Restraint