The Mountlake Terrace City Council at its Monday night business meeting authorized an additional $310,000 in contingency funds to pay for city-approved change orders and other unforeseen expenditures related to construction of the Mountlake Terrace Civic Campus project.

The Civic Campus is being built on the site of the former Mountlake Terrace City Hall — on the southwest corner of 232nd Street Southwest and 58th Avenue West.

Meeting remotely to comply with Gov. Jay Inslee’s stay-at-home orders, councilmembers heard from Assistant City Manager Stephen Clifton, who explained the context for requesting the additional contingency funds.

The 2019 Civic Campus project budget had originally included a contingency of over $900,000, but much of that money had to be used to cover base construction costs when bids came in higher than estimated. As a result, at the time the contract was awarded, only $190,00o in contingency remained.

The $310,000 additional for the contingency will come from savings in other areas, after city staff worked with the contractor Allied Construction to refine the cost of certain elements in the project, Clifton said. A significant portion of some elements had already been included in the base bid for city hall construction, such as excavation and concrete work for the plaza and fountain.

Having a larger contingency fund is important, Clifton said, because the construction itself involves “a process of unknowns.”

For example, when Allied Construction started digging for the new city hall foundation, they uncovered large chunks of concrete and other debris — likely from the old city hall. Some of that material was “quite deep,” as much as 17 feet, he said. After removing the concrete, Allied had to import 2,140 cubic yards of fill dirt, resulting in an unanticipated project cost of $122,186.

“That was really quite shocking to us and not something that we had anticipated but again, that’s why you have a contingency,” Clifton said.

Clifton also went through a list of other necessary and requested changes for the project — all covered by contingency funding. They ranged from rebuilding a catch basin, at a cost of $7,899.50, to building a root barrier for a Sequoia tree located next to the planned city hall (an additional $1,758.34) to relocating a drinking fountain in the city hall lobby/restroom area ($2,033.56).

The total for those identified changes was $197,279.39, but not all items have yet been approved. Also some items are under review and some amounts may be modified after discussions among Allied Construction, ARC Architects and the city, Clifton explained.

The Civic Campus project has five main components:

– A new, two-story city hall of approximately 18,600 square feet that includes city council chambers, public lobby, offices, meeting rooms, restrooms, mechanical and electrical room, elevator, mud room and storage room.

– A one-story, 3,100-square-foot addition to the existing police station that includes a new sally port, two holding areas, secure interview room, detective area, restroom updates, ADA improvements, new entry area and break room and open area for patrol and training.

– A new parking lot that includes lighting, vehicle charging stations, landscaping, entry signage and striping.

– The Jerry Smith Town Center Plaza with terraced and open seating areas, water feature, sculptures by two artists, landscaping and lighting.

– Realignment of an existing stormwater line in front of the police station to provide room for the addition.

The main funding source for the project is a $12.5 million voter-approved bond that received nearly 70 percent approval in 2017. In 2018, the city council identified park impact fees as a funding source to design and construct a public plaza as part of redeveloping the site. In 2019, the city received a $300,000 grant from the Hazel Miller Foundation to help fund the design and construction of a water feature on the plaza.

The Civic Campus project is still scheduled to be completed near the end of 2020, although the timeline may be impacted by changes in the job market and construction supply chain related to COVID-19.

— By Teresa Wippel