The Knox Wastewater Treatment project has gotten yet another extension from the board of works. In September, Mayor Dennis Estok promised that there would be no more extensions, but when the board met again last month, members unanimously approved a third change order. It pushes substantial completion to this Thursday and final completion to December 11, while raising the cost by more than another $45,000.
But the project does finally seem to be nearing the finish line. Engineer Steve Henschen with Jones Petrie Rafinski said the new headworks building is now up and running. The main thing that needs to be completed is a garage door. Henschen said it should be installed this week, but the opener probably won’t arrive until December. Additionally, JPR is offering to cover more than $42,000 of the final change order.
President and CEO Ken Jones said the firm is committed to the City of Knox and admitted that a few things were missed in the design. “When the project started, we lost the primary engineer who passed away,” he explained, “and then we had a second engineer that we assigned to the project that didn’t survive the project as an employee.”
The project had originally been scheduled for substantial completion back in August. Mayor Estok has previously voiced concern that Thieneman Construction hadn’t put enough effort into the project. The final cost is expected to end up being over $1.7 million.
