Fifth change order for Kinsman sewer project adds $58,896 to cost

Staff report

WARREN

The troublesome Kinsman sewer project has hit another snag, this time costing an additional $58,896.

The Trumbull County commissioners on Thursday approved a change order that raises the total contract amount to the general contractor, Marucci and Gaffney Excavating of Youngstown, to $6,655,534.

This is the fifth change order associated with the project, with earlier ones adding up to $708,638.

Thursday’s change order resulted from ground conditions the contractor found below a section of the sewer line that needed to be repaired in order to hold the sewer line properly, said Rex Fee, executive director of the county sanitary engineer’s office.

The soil conditions mean the contractor has to dig deeper and put down material to solidify the ground. That adds $39,600.

Fee said soil borings that were done are supposed to detect these issues, but they don’t catch everything.

A $15,093 change order was needed because the engineering company that designed the project, MS Consultants of Youngstown, failed to include installation of a 16-inch casing pipe in the original drawings.

“I let them have it. The county’s disappointed in both parties,” Fee said of MS Consultants and Marucci and Gaffney.

When complete, the sewer project will serve 343 homes and businesses within a half-mile of Kinsman Center and the Farmdale area. Those residents and businesses will pay 20 percent of the cost, with the rest being provided through grants from the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency.