Bellwood dam renovations won’t be completed on time

Consulting engineer declines to speculate on new deadline

The contractor renovating the Bellwood dam for the Altoona Water Authority will not finish the work on time, according to the consulting engineer overseeing the project.

Allison Park Contractors' substantial completion deadline is November, and its final completion deadline is April, but the contractor "is going to need more time," Mark Glenn of Gwin Dobson & Foreman told the authority board recently.

Glenn declined to speculate on a new deadline.

Issues contributing to the likely delay include having to spend three months draining the reservoir behind the dam early in the project; the discovery of old timber cribbing and a large, concrete-encased pipe through the dam that were improperly left from work done decades ago; and the stoppage of the disposal of silt from the reservoir basin, due to permitting issues with the disposal site, said authority General Manager Mark Perry.

The dewatering issue occurred due to wet weather, and while the contractor tried to keep workers busy with other matters, there were "limited" options, Perry said.

The sediment removal stoppage -- which continues -- meant that silt needed to be moved several times to allow for other work to occur, Perry said.

There was no way for the contractor to know about the cribbing and pipe that were found, Perry said.

There were also change orders that affected the work, Perry said.

Other issues include "resource management," having enough personnel in place, along with matters connected with equipment and machinery, according to Glenn.

The job is "massive," and it involves a large amount of temporary construction, including a bypass channel to allow Bells Gap Run to flow by the work area, according to Glenn.

Some of the temporary works "took longer than we thought it should," Glenn said.

A meeting between authority and contractor representatives was planned to discuss progress and a potential "firmer schedule," according to Glenn.

He hopes to be able to present that firmer schedule to the board at the authority's August meeting, Glenn said.

A good winter would help keep the ultimate delay to a minimum, according to Glenn.

The project was initially to take about two years.

The dam's companion project, renovation of the treatment plant that handles water from the Bellwood reservoir, is going well.

The dam delay will in turn delay a restart of the plant, but that's not a major issue, due to the authority's ability to move water from different reservoirs around to cover customer needs in its far-flung service area, Glenn said.

The authority has been taking advantage of that ability since the start of the Bellwood projects, and hasn't had trouble, even during drought watch times, Perry said.

Mirror Staff Writer William Kibler is at 814-949-7038.