Louisville’s massive rec center expansion will proceed as originally planned — and as budgeted — according to council members’ unanimous vote Tuesday night.
Despite a report released last week that detailed rather dramatic findings — the soil beneath the roughly 45,000-square-foot project, unidentified and expansive, could endanger the $28.6 million development over time — the decision to eschew expensive mitigation leaves the city to assume the long-term risks of the project.
Engineers proposed that reinforced flooring suspended above well-ventilated crawl spaces supported by drilled piers. The plan would have cost the city an additional, and unexpected, $1.3 million.
Current mitigation plans involve excavating soil as deep as 18 feet under the surface and replace it with compacted soils that are mixed with ingredients for better stabilization, City Manager Malcolm Fleming said Monday.
“That approach was the basis for the original cost estimate,” he said. “The design team and architect originally thought that was a pretty conservative approach in itself. Given the history of the site, (they felt) that it would be reasonable to mitigate any real risk.”
A combination of unidentified fill soils and high moisture levels deep below what crews would excavate, however, could spell disaster for structures above it, the report suggested.
Development seated “directly on the existing site soils are subject to likely, post-construction, vertical movements of eight to 10 inches as a result of heave and consolidation,” Denver-based Ground Engineering wrote in its report.
“Foundation and slab/flatwork movements of these magnitudes will result in significant damage,” it adds. “Nearly all of the proposed improvements are vulnerable in this regard.”
The report’s dramatic tone clashed with the City Council’s on Tuesday. Bolstered by the site’s minimal movement over the last 30 years, an approach taken by City Council members in 1989 — when the original building was constructed — offered even less mitigation than the updated project in the face of a soils report almost identical to the present.
“I’m pretty comfortable with the original plans,” Mayor Bob Muckle told fellow council members. “If we have some movement, (the current mitigation plans) seem to be a reasonable way to approach the problem. The building itself has been steady for a long time with a lot less mitigation than what we are proposing.”
Louisville voters said “yes” to the pair of ballot questions in November, raising local property taxes to fund the $28.6 million revamp. Officials suggest that the rec center is still on track for a fall groundbreaking.
Anthony Hahn: 303-473-1422, hahna@dailycamera.com or twitter.com/_anthonyhahn
