A bank stabilization pilot project that was recently conducted on the Yellow River was discussed during last Thursday’s Kankakee River Basin Commission meeting.
Starke County Surveyor Bill Crase said that about 2200 feet of work was completed along both sides of the river. He told commission members that he was very impressed with the results, especially with the way the banks were able to withstand recent flooding.
He said only about 300 feet of damage was incurred and suspected that was likely from floating debris striking the spot rather than structural inefficiencies. However, there were certain issues with the way that the project that kept Crase from considering it a complete success.
“We had a successful project but at the end of the day, the cost per foot made it unsuccessful on paper. If we are going to consider carrying on with that project, we have to have our local people do it.” Crase explained, “We can not bring in big companies for big dollars with that kind of money per foot or we’re never going to get anything done.”
Crase said he was under the impression that local businesses would be utilized for aspects of the project since it was mentioned in the agreement and he was instructed to submit an approved list of local companies on more than one occasion. However, the North Carolina-based consulting firm North States Environmental reportedly went out of county for much of the work.
A few different examples were provided, but one instance Crase referenced was a time where a larger excavator was required. Crase said he offered up a local contractor who was willing to rent an excavator that could have been used right away but the firm decided to rent the equipment from a company out of the area and had to wait two weeks for it to come in.
Since the project was started late in the fall, Crase said there wasn’t really an opportunity for them to stop the work in order to address the consulting issues due to time constraints. He added that the anticipated cost of the project was expected to be about $300,000 and it came in a bit over $500,000.
Commission Secretary and Jasper County Surveyor Vince Urbano stated that as a representative of the commission and a county surveyor he was dismayed to hear that the size of the project could have potentially been doubled for the same price, had local help been utilized.
Commission Treasurer Kevin Breitzke said though the KRBC isn’t involved with creating the contract, he was upset to learn that local workers were not utilized or trained since they were told that they would be. Vice Chairman Ken Purze stressed the fact that the KRBC is a funding source and that project supervision is out of their control. He said that responsibility falls to the individual county surveyors and drainage boards.
Though the discussion got a bit heated with various county officials weighing in on the perceived failures or coming to the defense of the KRBC, Crase ended his report saying that it doesn’t do any good to sit and argue about it now. He stated that the purpose of his report was to highlight the pros and alert commission members of the cons.
He added that if the KRBC does plan to fund similar bank stabilization projects in other counties, officials now know that the utilization of local workers and the importance of maintaining individual project control will need to be emphasized as an absolute requirement in order to keep any future projects from facing the same problems.
Chairman Chris Knochel thanked Starke County Surveyor Crase for his report and said this pilot project has served as a valuable learning opportunity for the commission members.
