Stalled salmon habitat project spurs suit

OLYMPIA - The City of Olympia has spent $711,526 on a now-stalled project aimed at improving salmon habitat, and the contractor has sued the city seeking nearly $400,000 more to finish the work.

Realm Inc. of DuPont wants to be paid $397,892 more to finish the Ellis Creek fish passage project, which has been stalled by problems with soil conditions.

The project involves installing a large culvert under East Bay Drive that would allow more water to flow in Ellis Creek, as well as more room for spawning salmon to move between Budd Inlet and the creek. It ran into trouble in 2008 when the contractor was unable to push its tunneling equipment under East Bay Drive after running into old trees, excessive groundwater and other problems, project manager Sheri Zimny told The Olympian at the time.

The city decided to stop work and pay the contractor $711,526. Realm claims in its lawsuit that the city made that decision unilaterally, and that the contractor is owed more money.

Zimny declined to comment about the project this week, referring a reporter to City Attorney Tom Morrill. Morrill confirmed the thrust of the suit but said he wasn’t the person to talk to about technical details.

Realm President Dave Follett declined to comment. Realm’s attorney, Thomas F. Miller of Tumwater, also declined to comment, through a representative.

Public Works director Michael Mucha blamed soil conditions that would require a different boring technique and be more costly – “almost like a $1.8 million project,” he said.

“As we started … digging and figuring out the soil conditions and the difficulty of the project, we realized there were some new technical issues that made the project way more expensive,” he said.

Some of the project was paid for via a $598,000 state Salmon Recovery Grant. Mucha said some of that grant money was spent, but he didn’t know how much.

He also said he didn’t know whether the project would proceed. He plans to have crews restore and re-vegetate the site in August so it appears the same as before the work began.

According to Realm’s suit:

The company won the project after submitting the low bid for the work in May 2008. In July that year, it began clearing the site for an access road and “encountered soils that were not stable.” The situation was unsafe, and Realm imported rock and fill materials to construct the road. Realm submitted the costs for the extra work Sept. 11, 2008, as a “differing site condition or changed position.”

Realm had submitted more notice of the obstructions eight days earlier, and the city acknowledged the difficulty Sept. 18 and asked Realm to submit daily reports. The back-and-forth between Realm and the city continued until Sept. 30, when the city issued a “notice of termination for convenience” on the contract.

By March 2009, the city decided Realm was entitled to $711,526.

“We determined how much time and materials they used,” Mucha said.

Improving the Ellis Creek fish passage is part of a larger strategy to improve naturally spawning coho runs in South Sound.

“Providing a large, 7-foot diameter culvert allows for a flatter transition (for fish) and allows for more water to be in the pipe for the fish to be able to navigate up through the road crossing,” Mucha said.

Matt Batcheldor: 360-704-6869

mbatcheldor@theolympian.com