Work on Grand Drive nears completion

With the majority of the invasive

construction work on the Grand Drive portion of the Bigfork

Stormwater Project complete, the crew is now preparing to bring the

new water treatment system online.

“Currently, the infrastructure is

installed. Now we are working on restoration,” said Brett Walcheck

of 48 North Civil Engineering Services.

According to Walcheck, the conveyance

lines, catch basins and treatment units are in place. The crew is

still working on installing primary treatment components, such as

the filter cartridges that were recently put into the Jellyfish

unit on Grand Drive. Those components are responsible for pulling

particles out of the water before it is released into the bay.

Currently, the inlet and outlet for the

main treatment system are plugged, meaning no water is entering the

unit for treatment.

The Stormceptor unit, which will

eventually feed water into the main unit, is the only part of the

system that is up and running at this time. That unit removes large

particles from the water before sending it to the Jellyfish, which

filters out finer particles and pollutants.

At present, water released by the

Stormceptor unit bypasses the Jellyfish and flows directly into the

bay.

Even after installation has been

completed, Walcheck said there are still a few more steps that must

be taken before the entire system can go online and start treating

stormwater.

Those steps include restoration and

clean-up.

The crew has finished repaving the

road, but there is sidewalk reconstruction work that has yet to be

completed.

“There were a few areas where we had to

pull concrete out if it interfered with the flow pattern we were

trying to achieve,” Walcheck said. “And we also plan to replace

some of the dilapidated sections of the sidewalk.”

The areas of road surrounding the

manhole covers also need to be filled with concrete, Walcheck

said.

After that work is complete, the crew

will clean the construction site, catch basins and surrounding

roadways to remove any lingering debris.

“I’d say restoration is at about the 80

percent level right now,” Walcheck said.

Walcheck anticipates that there will be

workers out on the roadway for about two more weeks, but he doesn’t

expect any major traffic disruptions during that time.

“I think we have the majority of the

road closures out of the way,” he said.

The crew must also install Filterra

units at the north end of Grand Drive before the construction

contract expires.

Walcheck doesn’t know when those units

will go in, but he said bringing the rest of the system online

beforehand is “a definite possibility” depending on when the units

arrive on site.

“If their (the Filterra company’s)

timeline is a ways out, we might go ahead and bring the system

online before they get here,” Walcheck said.

At the May 25 Bigfork Stormwater

Advisory Committee meeting, Walcheck announced the approval of a

change order for two additional work items. Those include the

repair of the rock armored wall on the north side of Grand Drive

and the installation of a slipline in an existing pipe near the

Jellyfish outfall.

As a result of heavy spring rain and

vibration from construction equipment, part of the armoring on the

rock wall sloughed, creating a six to eight-inch gap.

“We’re going to install new stones and

grout to fix that,” Walcheck said, adding that no heavy equipment

will be needed for that project.

The slipline consists of a heavy-duty

liner that seals the pipe, making it “structurally sound and smooth

so that any water traveling down is kept within the pipe,” Walcheck

said.

The slipline will be placed inside the

storm line near the outfall for the new Jellyfish unit. That storm

line was the only existing pipe that was not replaced during the

project.

“That line was too difficult to replace

because of the location, so instead of replacing it, we’re going to

rehabilitate it,” Walcheck said.

According to Walcheck, the change order

will not push the total price of the project over the contractor’s

budget.

Although the 80-day construction

contract expires July 1, the contractor has the option of filing

for “substantial completion” when most of the work is finished.

That would essentially “stop the clock” on the contract, Walcheck

said.

But even if the project runs past the

original deadline, Walcheck said that by that point, construction

disruptions would be minimal.

“There may be maintenance people out

there finalizing details around that time, but the majority of the

work that impacts traffic in the Bigfork area is anticipated to be

finalized in the next couple of weeks,” Walcheck said.

Rural Special Improvement District

Also at the May 25 meeting, BSAC

members continued to work on establishing a Rural Special

Improvement District (RSID) to help fund the remainder of the

Bigfork Stormwater Project.

The first step in the process involves

sending out a survey to local taxpayers.

The group edited a two-page draft of

background information and survey questions down to a single page,

which will eventually be mailed out to area residents to gauge

interest in and knowledge of the project.

“We want to see what level of awareness

there is out there about the project,” said BSAC chairman Sue

Hanson.

The survey will also help the committee

determine how large the district will be.

“Part of our reason for doing this is

to see what our response is,” Hanson said. “We want to see if we

get interest from the further-out districts.”

The final cost of the survey has not

yet been determined, and it must be approved by county

commissioners before it is mailed.

The next regular BSAC meeting is set

for 12:30 p.m. on June 29 at Bethany Lutheran Church.

For more information on the project,

visit the stormwater page at www.bigforksteering.org or contact Sue

Hanson at 837-5323.

For more information on design and

construction, contact Brett Walcheck at 756-4848.