Port of Bellingham commissioners increased the Blaine Harbor bulkhead repair budget by $115,000 to accommodate additional costs that could arise during construction.
Port commissioners unanimously voted to increase the original $51,000 budget with an additional $115,000 in funding for what is officially known as the Blaine Harbor Bulkhead Repair and Replacement Project.
The additional funding came from an allocation in the port’s 2020 strategic budget, as a supplement to original funding from the 2018 Capital Improvement Project, according to the bulkhead budget reallocation memorandum.
Construction is typically budgeted with 10 percent contingency that allows for unanticipated project changes but the bulkhead was originally only given a 3 percent contingency, said Greg Nicoll, Port of Bellingham senior project manager. Nicoll requested additional contingency funds to provide the additional 7 percent to equal a total construction contingency of 10 percent of the construction contract amount.
The project is expected to cost $2.4 to $2.6 million dollars when finished, Nicoll said.
The bulkhead project will replace 280 feet of rotted timber bulkhead on the Sawtooth Pier and by the former T&M Protein site, along with 165 feet of bulkhead by the Boundary Fish and On-Board Marine bulkheads, according to the port documents.
About 30 percent of the project has been completed since Bellingham-based BOSS Construction began repairs in September, the port documents state.
The project’s completion date is expected to be mid-May of this year, Nicoll said.
Currently, the construction crew is 60 to 70 percent finished driving steel sheet piles that will comprise the new bulkhead, Nicoll said. The crew will then backfill behind the new bulkhead and drive steel batter piles to reinforce the bulkhead.
“The bulkhead had failed and was well beyond its useful life and it was time to replace it,” Nicoll said. “It wasn’t an immediate hazard but it was in a position where we needed to act to ensure we had best use of facilities.”
In other port news, commissioners voted at their December 8 meeting to approve a $200,000 settlement with Exxon Mobil Corporation for cleanup at the Blaine Marina, Inc. environmental cleanup site.
The Blaine Marina, Inc. cleanup previously housed the Blaine Marina Furniture and Appliance Retail near 214 Sigurdson Avenue.
Blaine Marina, Inc., which leased the site from the Port of Bellingham from the 1950s until May 2015, added three above-ground gasoline storage tanks in 1956 that created petroleum spills, according to port documents.
About 1,500 to 2,000 gallons of home heating oil from the storage tanks was allegedly released from an Exxon truck at the site in the 1960s, the port documents state.
Exxon was determined liable for the site but denies liability, only paying the port to avoid litigation expenses and uncertainty, according to port documents.
Ben Howard, project manager for the port, said the total cleanup cost will be $2.5 million but the port has received grant funding from the Washington State Department of Ecology for 50 percent of the cleanup cost. Excavation in 2018 cost $1.2 million, $500,000 of which the port paid.
Bioremediation – putting a nutrient solution outside the excavation site to degrade contamination – is the main cleanup that will occur three times per year until 2022, Howard said. The site is considered fully cleaned up once bioremediation is complete.
Howard said he does not know the total number of oil spills at the Blaine Marina, Inc. site aside from the three documented spills, one of which was involved in the Exxon settlement.
“The impact was really low because we found the contamination did not expand into the harbor so it was really underground in the former tank area,” Howard said. “There was no immediate exposure risk.”
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