Waiting for water upgrades drags on in Cape

Construction work still continues on Cape Girardeau's Cape Rock water treatment plant, an expansion project that is about eight months behind schedule.

The work is part of a major $17.5 million water plant upgrade that will allow for the plant's water capacity to increase from 4.5 million gallons a day to 7.6 million gallons. The plant, by using recently built wells instead of drawing water directly from the Mississippi River, also will supply softer water to Cape Girardeau residents.

Those involved with the project say the work has picked up considerably in the last few weeks, but it slowed to almost a halt over the summer months when the contractor, Huffman Inc. of Poplar Bluff, Mo., and the project engineers, Burns & McDonnell Engineering Co., quarreled over the specifications of a lime feeder. The project was slated for completion in February this year.

The city has imposed a $1,000-per-calendar-day late penalty for liquidation damages. City manager Michael Miller said the completion date was Feb. 18. That was more than 230 days ago.

However, George Revelle of Huffman Inc. said it has not been fully determined yet if the company will be assessed the $1,000-per-day penalty. When asked to further explain, he referred questions to Mike Huffman, the owner of the business. Huffman did not return phone calls Thursday or Friday.

Kevin Priester, the water plant manager, said the lime feeder did not meet expectations. Lime is used to reduce hardness in the water.

The lead process engineer with Burns & McDonnell, Jeff Wassilak, said the contractor failed to schedule properly or provide enough personnel to get the job done on time.

"They didn't do a good job of recognizing that to get to point D, you have to go through steps A, B and C," he said.

City councilman Matt Hopkins didn't comment on the particular contractor but questioned the city's bidding process.

"You have to be very careful as a government entity. You have to take the lowest bid, in general," he said. "But sometimes, the lowest bid isn't always the best deal. This is something we'll have to take into account in the future."

Wassilak said the two parties have come to a temporary solution -- many of the pipes were rerouted, and existing pumps are being used instead of new ones. Wassilak said the engineering firm and the contractors still are working on a more permanent solution, but Priester said the temporary fix may indeed become the permanent solution.

Meanwhile, the construction continues and the water plant operators still are operating two systems until the work is finished.

"They've certainly gone above and beyond at times," Priester said of his employees. "At times, I think they've been frustrated. They always want to make sure things are perfect, but when you're working through construction, not everything is going to go perfect all the time."

Priester said the plant operators likely will be able to start running the new system exclusively in a couple months.

"We've run into some things that have drug this out," Priester said. "But now, everybody just wants to get it completed. We're by all the real holdups."

Revelle said he thought the completion of the last phase of the project -- which involves renovating old structures so they will run cohesively with the new ones -- will be finished in about 100 days.

bmiller@semissourian.com

335-6611, extension 127