The City of Blaine is looking at shelling out almost $43,000 more than expected to complete a sewer line project that will connect the Semiahmoo area with Blaine’s main water treatment facility.

At tonight’s meeting (Monday, February 27), Blaine City Council will vote on two contract amendments for the west Blaine wastewater conveyance project, which seeks to connect the Semiahmoo water treatment plant with the larger treatment facility at the end of Mariner Drive. As I reported here, city council recently approved an additional $119,647 for the project after a portion of pipe involved in the project broke.

The contract amendments on tonight’s council agenda are for two companies managing the project for the city: Bellingham-based Wilson Engineering and Seattle-based Tetra Tech, Inc. City council members will be asked to approve an additional $25,700 for the Tetra Tech contract and an additional  $16,592 for Wilson Engineering.

Including the additional amounts, Tetra Tech’s total contract for this project will be $892,240 while Wilson Engineering’s will be $241,491. According to the draft contract amendment, Tetra Tech’s contract has been amended nine times since March 26, 2009.

Click here for the Tetra Tech amendment, and click here for the Wilson Engineering amendment.

The project encountered delays at the end of 2011 when a section of old, unused sewer pipe beneath Drayton Harbor broke. As I reported here, the project calls for new sewer pipe to be threaded through the older pipe, which already runs underneath the harbor. This process, called sliplining, hit a snag when the force of the test pipe being pushed through the old one broke the old pipe a few yards from Marine Drive.

Blaine public works staff expect the entire project to be done by May. Once completed, the city will be able to close the Semiahmoo treatment plant and  return most of the property surrounding the plant to the Lummi tribe.

The city council meeting starts at 6 tonight at Blaine city hall. Click here for the full agenda for the evening.