An ordinance was enacted at the most recent Kenai City Council meeting to provide supplemental funding in the amount of $100,000 for the Kenai Municipal Airport’s Sand Storage Facility Project to cover the additionally requested construction administrative costs of $132,993 to carry the project through completion anticipated for the end of the calendar year 2023.
As council is aware, this project has experienced significant time delays. The original contract award to Orion Construction was in October 2020 and significant supply chain challenges became apparent with varying COVID 19 restrictions nationwide. Construction was able to restart this spring with all materials now sourced and available. The concrete foundation was poured on June 14th, 2023, with structural steel on site with planned installation through July. The overall project is expected to be completed by October.
Scott Curtin, the Public Works Director stated in his memo to the council, “To get to this point significant coordination with the Contractor and the design team was required well beyond what a typical project would be under normal circumstances.”
Kenai City Manager Terry Eubank gave a brief overview of the ordinance;
“The sand storage facility project on the airport, is one of those projects that happened in probably, it got awarded about the height of COVID and since then has experienced some significant delays and you know being able to secure and obtain a metal building structure. So, what this ordinance does is it allows, it’s providing additional CA service money to the engineers and architects that have been involved in that delayed and belabored process. The project is on track, the building, I believe is even here and you know they poured slab and things like that. But this will provide some supplemental funding. This project is 100% cost reimbursable by the FAA. It’s likely the FAA is not going to participate in 100% of these costs. They have some stipulations about time delays and things like that. We’re still negotiating with the FAA on concurrence on the change orders exactly how much they’re going to reimburse. So, this is all supplemental funding is going to let us award the contract to keep the project on track and we’ll continue to work with the FAA to get as much reimbursed as we can under the grant program.”
Existing contingency funding is available to make up the difference between the $132,993 HDL Engineering Consultants Contract Amendment #2 and the $100,000 in supplemental funding being requested.
The $100,000 supplement requested is enough to cover these costs with existing contingency funds. The staff is working with the FAA on contract change concurrence and intends to bring back to Council at a later date another Ordinance to appropriate the FAA’s grant share.
These funds are intended to provide services through the end of the project including closeout with the FAA. They include costs from all of HDL subconsultants including architectural, structural, mechanical and electrical, as well as their own civil and contract admin fees.
This project remains a priority for the Airport and the Kenai City Council will continue to be kept informed of the project’s progress through the department’s midmonth reports.
