Firm with local ties hired to design dam

The board of the Rivanna Water and Sewer Authority on Tuesday unanimously selected Schnabel Engineering Assoc-iates to replace Gannett Fleming as the lead firm designing the new dam proposed for the Ragged Mountain Reservoir.

Schnabel, based in Glen Allen, was awarded a $1.3 million contract for preliminary engineering. The goal is to secure a new design and a new cost estimate for construction of the dam by late spring of 2010.

Chris Webster, Schnabel’s Charlottesville project administrator, said his firm’s local connections would be a real strength in the design process.

“We are excited about the project,” Webster said after the vote. “Our reputation has to stand on this, and we are not just walking away after we are done. We know there is strong interest in the community and we want to be good stewards and seek the public’s input.”

Dede Smith, a member of Citizens for a Sustainable Water Plan, told the board no more money should be spent designing the dam until other studies are completed. Smith asked the board to wait, in part, for information on a dredging feasibility study related to the South Fork Rivanna Reservoir.

“I am disappointed that they are going ahead with the design before they have sufficient information,” Smith said. “Before the city allocates money for their share of the dam design, it needs to be very clear on what the benefits of this dam are, because the city doesn’t need it.”

Smith’s feedback appeared to get the attention of City Councilor Holly Edwards, who said initially that she would prefer to delay a vote in order to first get questions raised by the public addressed.

Thomas L. Frederick Jr., Rivanna’s executive director, explained that multiple studies related to the water supply were under way simultaneously in order to collect all the data needed for a final decision. Mike Gaffney, the Rivanna board chairman, said that he remembered Charlot-tesville Mayor Dave Norris previously stating that the design of the dam should continue while additional studies were completed and before any final decision was made to start building the dam.

“Nothing should be done to start construction,” Gaffney said. “Design is not the start of construction.”

Edwards voted in favor of the contract and said afterwards that she was not trying to block the dam’s design.

“I don’t want to obstruct things, I want to move cautiously,” Edwards said. “Even if you move slowly, you’ll still get there.”

Frederick suggested to the board that a window of opportunity in a favorable construction market could close in 12 to 18 months. He had recommended a $2.1 million project that would have included the final design work.

The board, however, asked that the contract be conducted in two phases and authorized up to $1.3 million, plus a 10 percent contingency, to see the project through the preliminary design phase only.

Frederick will need board approval to execute the other phase of the contract for a final design.

The new dam is one key element of the community water supply plan, which was approved in 2006. Gannett Fleming received $1.7 million for design work on the Ragged Mountain Dam before the project stopped in August 2008. At that time, Rivanna concluded it needed a panel of experts to review its design approach and cost estimates.

In an e-mail to Charlottesville Tomorrow, Frederick said most of that previous work will be useful to Schnabel.

“[Gannett Fleming was] collecting data and running routine calculations that are still very useful, and they were only beginning the work of making engineering interpretations and judgments … when their work stopped,” Frederick wrote. “It is the interpretations and judgment for which [we are] seeking a ‘fresh look,’ not the collected data itself.”

Schnabel will first review Gannett Fleming’s existing geotechnical data detailing the underground conditions before conducting additional field testing of its own.

Another aspect of its project will be to identify potential areas adjacent to the reservoir that can provide rock aggregate for the dam’s construction.

Charlottesville Tomorrow is a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization covering land-use and transportation issues in Charlottesville and Albemarle County.