Decision to switch firms may cost RWSA

As the Rivanna Water & Sewer Authority undergoes a search for a new firm to construct a new dam at Ragged Mountain, it’s unclear exactly how switching firms will affect the area’s long-term water supply plan or how much money given to Gannett Fleming might have been wasted.

“We spent a lot of money with them,” said Charlottesville City Council member Julian Taliaferro. “It hasn’t been cheap.”

Two years ago, the RWSA agreed to pay Gannett Fleming more than $3 million to design the new dam at Ragged Mountain. But Thursday the RWSA announced it would be seeking proposals from different firms.

Mike Gaffney, chairman of the RWSA Board of Directors, said he doesn’t know how much money has been given to Gannett Fleming. However, he said those are figures that the authority will likely compile and release publicly in the near future. However, much of the money given to the Pennsylvania-based Gannett Fleming went to good use, he said.

“A lot of, if not most of what we paid Gannett, will be going forward with the new designer,” Gaffney said. “Most of what we paid were studies and those studies will be applicable to the new designer.”

Gaffney said that the RWSA had questioned whether Gannett Fleming was on the same page as the authority.

“Our feeling was that they wanted to over-design a dam for our area,” Gaffney said. “Our focus absolutely is safety and the dam design, but it’s also the most cost-effective approach.”

Nearly a year ago, Gannett Fleming upped a cost estimate by tens of millions of dollars to build a higher dam at Ragged Mountain — a vital component of the area’s approved long-term water supply plan. Gannett Fleming far more than doubled an earlier $37 million estimate for the dam, blaming the hike on its discovery of fractured bedrock where the new dam is to be built, but RWSA officials questioned the massive spike.

The 50-year water supply plan for Charlottesville and Albemarle County was originally expected to cost $142.8 million and includes construction of a higher dam at the Ragged Mountain Reservoir to increase water storage from 464 million to 2.19 billion gallons.

To fill the reservoir to its new capacity, a pipeline from the South Fork Reservoir is to be built.

Since Gannett Fleming said $37 million would actually cover only a fraction of the cost to build a higher dam at Ragged Mountain, RWSA officials have said they don’t know how much the water supply plan will end up costing.

In February, the RWSA Board of Directors agreed to spend up to $264,000 on a three-member panel of dam construction experts. Though the consultants didn’t provide a new cost estimate, they outlined how the RWSA could reduce costs for a new dam without compromising safety requirements.

Gaffney said that Gannett Fleming wanted to build a foundation for the dam that wasn’t compatible with the dam experts’ recommendations.

Charlottesville Mayor Dave Norris said that the RWSA’s hiring of a new firm is the right move.

“I think there were some really legitimate questions raised about the reliability of information we were getting from [Gannett Fleming] and their responsiveness in addressing some of the concerns that have been raised,” Norris said. “And I think it was time to find a new partner in this.”

Norris said that getting rid of Gannett Fleming is an “opportunity to clean the slate a little bit and to bring in a firm that we can rely on to do a good job for our community.”

The RWSA’s executive director said the authority hopes to have the new firm hired by September.