Steel costs could impact project

By CARRIE KIRSCHNER - The Independent

ASHLAND May 15, 2008 11:49 pm

— The rising cost of fuel and demand for steel may have implications for the construction of Ashland’s Veterans Riverfront Park.
According to officials from Seattle-based DNP Engineers Inc., who addressed city leaders Thursday night, the cost of sheet metal proposed for use in the reclamation of riverfront land has doubled within the last year and is at risk of continuing to rise. Because of high demand, the specialized steel could also take six months from order date to delivery date, they said, pushing back the time line for phase one’s construction.
The steel will be used to construct the project’s river wall, which will be built between 75 and 100 feet from the current shore of the Ohio River. The wall, expected to be 500 feet long, is essentially a large retaining wall that will be back-filled to increase the size and reduce the slope of the park as it descends from the railroad tracks to the river.
Although the wall will be about 40 feet high, only about 5 feet will be visible above the water line. It will also serve as a large boat dock and walkway as well as a stage.
Todd Nottingham, DNP corporate secretary, whose father designed the trademarked Open Cell method that will be used to construct the wall or bulkhead, said despite higher steel prices this method of construction will cost substantially less than other proposed methods. In Open Cell construction, steel pilings are driven to the bedrock, as opposed to being socketed into the bedrock, which is done in traditional tied-back bulkheads. In Open Cell construction, steel pilings reinforce the soil rather than resist the soil, acting more like a gravity structure than a bending structure.
The presence of bedrock close to the surface at the site makes Ashland a good location for Open Cell construction, he said. It’s estimated the Open Cell bulkhead can be built at approximately one third of the cost of the tied-back bulkhead.
Nottingham also told commissioners a majority of the construction is expected to be done from the shore and not from the river, which also lowers the estimated cost.
With the possibility of higher project costs, Ashland City Manager Steve Corbitt said the city will bid a second, smaller river wall down stream as an alternative package when it goes to bid. The city is expecting bid packages for phase one to be ready to go out on June 30, with construction expected to begin by late summer or early fall.
Corbitt said work on the utilities at the site and on portions of the project not involved with the reclamation will get under way before the steel is delivered.