Lift Station 87 sees new delays

After taking a step forward earlier this month, project leaders revealed the completion of Lift Station 87 could still be more than three years away at a meeting Monday.

That timeline — which would push the completion date into 2018 — represents a potential two-year delay from the current targeted completion date of January 2016. It also would require the city to once again receive an extension to a state Department of Environmental Protection consent order, which mandates the completion of Lift Station 87 by May 2016.

Robert Garland, the project manager with engineering firm McKim and Creed, said the group had an opportunity to revisit its timeline as the design of the facility was revised. Before beginning work on the construction of the lift station itself, the group will ensure it can complete the microtunneling efforts beneath the Hudson Bayou that caused earlier project delays — and led to the firing of the previous engineering firm in charge of the project.

“We want to demonstrate we're successful at that before we invest the remainder of the money on the project,” Garland said. “I think it's crucial to demonstrate the crossing can be done.”

Likewise, before installing a crucial gravity sewer, McKim and Creed is intent on demonstrating the work at the lift station itself is going well. Although some of the construction can be done concurrently, the phasing of the project would extend the process.

“The major impact to the schedule is the project has to be constructed in three unique stages,” Garland said.

Garland could not speak to the process of getting an extension from the state Department of Environmental Protection, as that matter is being handled by the city. Still, he said, the city is making a good-faith effort to replace the aging Lift Station 7 and get Lift Station 87 in place as quickly as it could.

Since McKim and Creed took over, the project completion date has already been adjusted from November 2015 to January 2016. The consent order from the Department of Environmental Protection, originally issued in 2006, has been amended three times to push back the deadline. The project, approved in 2008, was originally slated for completion in 2011.

Garland declined to speculate on an updated completion date for Lift Station 87. Project leaders should have a more specific timeline next month, he said.

For more information about the Lift Station 87 project, pick up a copy of Thursday’s Sarasota Observer.

Contact David Conway at [email protected].