Contractor Halts Smithville Police Department Construction Due to Soft Soil Issue, City Committed to Resolving Problem and Completing Project

October 28, 2020
By: Dwayne Page

Construction has ground to a halt on the new Smithville Police Department building only weeks after groundbreaking.

The contractor, Boyce Ballard Construction of Murfreesboro, stopped working after discovering unsuitable soils on the site. In some places, the ground was too soft to proceed without significant soil removal and replacement which could add an extra $100,000 to the $2.5 million project.

The question is who should address the soil problem, the city or the contractor?

The city’s position is that Boyce Ballard Construction bears the responsibility since the soil condition was identified in a geotechnical report and that the intent of the contract documents was for any unsuitable soil removal and replacement to be included in the bid and contract amount.

During a work session and special meeting last Thursday, October 22, the city’s architect Wayne Oakley of Studio Oakley Architects in Lebanon met with the mayor and aldermen to discuss the issue.

“We did hit some unsuitable soil especially along Don Cantrell Street which would be basically from (what would be) the front of the building back half way into the building”.

Reading from the geotechnical report, Oakley said “soft surface soil conditions were encountered in three of the soil test borings at depths ranging from 1 to 7 to 9 feet below the existing ground surfaces and these soil zones could potentially impact the performance of the building’s concrete slab foundation in the parking and drive areas”. The report went on to state that “we anticipate that some of these soft soils will be encountered and will require undercutting and replacement”.

“When they were first excavating our geotechnical firm was here and watched the proof roll and found they could not even put a truck on it. Normally what we do is load a tandem axel dump truck and roll it across the dirt and watch to see if there is any upheaval compressions that are made. They were afraid they would lose their truck. What we think happened that made this corner worse is the grade seemed to be a little bit high and water couldn’t get into this storm structure on Don Cantrell Street. It was probably setting under the subsurface somewhat and slowly and incrementally absorbed into the ground. We came back a couple of weeks ago and let it dry out to see if that might help the situation. We were able to roll it at that time and did find areas that were not as bad as originally thought,” said Oakley.

“We told the contractor let’s look at an on average worst case scenario based upon what we saw and what was in the geotechnical report. We had three feet of undercut in the lower corner and then in the sally port area it reduced to 18 inches and when we got further back into the building it reduced to 12 inches and then to zero. We had them put a price tag on undercutting that and bringing in shot rock fill and that was near the $100,000 mark. Our intent and what we believe is in our contract documents is that the contractor is supposed to pick up all that,” said Oakley.

“That bid they (contractor) gave included all ground and excavation work. To me they should be paying for that. They are the experts. The mayor and the city council are not. My theory is they saw the geotechnical report which speaks of that (soft soils) in there so their engineers should have examined that and said this is what it is going to cost us to do this job,” said City Attorney Vester Parsley.

“We have been trying to find solutions. We talked with the structural engineer about the amount of loads it would take. The project is considered to be a lightly loaded building. In other words we don’t have massive point loads coming down in certain areas or mass weight on load bearing walls. We asked the contractor to look at on average under the building area only 18 inches of cut. We’d come back with a geo grid underneath that. Basically that’s a fabric which helps to disperse loads out. On the sally port area we would still have to do an 18 inch cut. We did ask for unit prices for unsuitable soil, mass rock and trench rock. I do that on every project. I want to know if we hit something else what we are going to pay. We gave them a new diagram to go by so we are still waiting for that information to come back,” said Oakley.

Since the meeting, Oakley has sent the following letter to Boyce Ballard stating the city’s position and asking them to proceed with the construction.

“Mr. Boyce, at their special called City Council Meeting on October 22, 2020, the City of Smithville, City Council, Mayor Josh Miller, City Attorney Vester Parsley and I discussed the current situation with the unsuitable soil conditions at the under construction City of Smithville Police Department”.

“Upon review of the Bid and Contract Documents, it is our belief the intent of the Contract Documents was for any unsuitable soil removal and replacement to be included in the Bid and Contract amount. Therefore, the City of Smithville will not take any financial obligation for the removal and replacement of the unsuitable soil”.

“The City is requesting that construction resume without delay and without additional cost to the City of Smithville. It is understood there has been a substantial delay with the construction as solutions have been researched. Time lost up to Monday October 26, 2020 will not be held against the allotted construction time as specified in the Contract. Please let us know if there are any questions and we look forward to a successful completion of the project. Sincerely, Wayne Oakley, AIA, NCARB Studio Oakley Architects, LLC,” the letter concluded.

Mayor Josh Miller said he looks forward to the soil issue being solved so that the construction can resume to completion.

October 28, 2020
By: Dwayne Page

The season is over for the DCHS Tiger football team.

DeKalb County will not be able to compete in the TSSAA Class 4A football playoffs despite being the Region 3-4A champion due to COVID-19 and the regular season finale game at home against Cumberland County set for this Friday night, October 30 is also canceled.

The Tigers (6-3, 3-0) is the second mid-state area playoff team that has had to end its season prematurely because of the coronavirus.

According to the Tennessean Stewarts Creek announced Monday its football program was being forced to quarantine because of COVID-19 and would miss this week and next. The Red Hawks were tied with La Vergne for second place entering its Week 11 game with Smyrna.

TSSAA executive director Bernard Childress said spots in the playoffs vacated by teams with COVID-19 will not be replaced.

October 28, 2020
By: Dwayne Page

More people have already voted in DeKalb County for the upcoming Presidential election in 13 days than the 14 day early voting period for the November 2016 election.

As of Wednesday, October 28, a total of 4,579 had cast ballots (4,148 early/ 431 absentees) for next week’s election, up by 587 over 2016. In the Presidential election four years ago, 7,065 people cast ballots in DeKalb County including 3,073 on election day and 3,992 early votes/absentee.

According to the DeKalb County Election Commission 308 voted Wednesday including 295 in person and 13 by absentee.

Early voting hours Thursday, October 29 will be from from 1 p.m. until 6 p.m. All early voting is being conducted in the first floor courtroom of the DeKalb County Courthouse. Election day voting on Tuesday, November 3 will be from 8 a.m. until 7 p.m. at all 15 precincts in DeKalb County.

Safeguards are in place to help protect both workers and voters during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Voting totals for the previous 12 days were as follows:

*Wednesday, October 14- 528 cast ballots including 287 in person and 241 by absentee.

*Thursday, October 15 – 320 voted including 303 in person and 17 absentees

*Friday, October 16- 340 including 336 in person and 4 absentees

*Saturday, October 17- 268 including 247 in person and 21 absentees

*Monday, October 19- 362 which was 346 in person (including Webb House residents) and 16 absentees.

*Tuesday, October 20-326 including 317 in person and 9 by absentee

*Wednesday, October 21- 356 including 328 in person and 28 by absentee

*Thursday, October 22- 375 voted including nursing home residents and 3 absentees.

*Friday, October 23-419 including 403 in person and 16 by absentee

*Saturday, October 24-299 all in person

* Monday, October 26- 342 including 312 in person and 30 by absentee

*Tuesday, October 27- 336 including 303 in person and 33 by absentee