Surveyors miscalculated and construction workers are not building

Tag : construction and building
The new City Hall in this suburb east of Tacoma isnot being built where it was planned, and officials want to knowwhy.
Babbit Neuman Construction workers miscalculated the baseline forthe building because of a surveying error, causing it to be off by13 feet, 4 inches, project manager Matt Nagel told the town councillast month.
On Tuesday, the council is expected to hear proposals fromarchitects on how to proceed and more details about how the problemhappened.
Officials are still gauging how the mistake might affect the CityHall project, which is to be completed by October, Public WorksDirector Dave Lorenzen said.
"A lot of it is saying, 'OK, who screwed up, and what can we do tofix it?' " Lorenzen said.
Because the new building is so much closer to a road being laid onits northern side, architects must relocate a transformer andgenerator, he said.
Council members rejected the architects' original suggestion tomove one or both into a parking lot.
"That was not acceptable," Mayor Jeff Hogan said.
Babbit Neuman is responsible for any additional costs, Lorenzensaid.
Nagel didn't return calls for comment from The News Tribune in thepast week.
The $7.2 million building will be Edgewood's first comprehensiveadministrative headquarters.
Since the municipality was incorporated in 1996, the council hasmet in a church basement and municipal operations have been handledout of a manufactured building sometimes dubbed "the trailer."
Lorenzen said the building should still be completed on schedule.
"I don't think it's an insurmountable problem," council member PaulCrowley said. "We clearly would have preferred that the building bebuilt in the correct location, but given that it's not, we have towork with that."