Description
Construction of a 42,500 sf new school for grades Kindergarten through 12; including abatement, demolition and removal of existing site structures and the old school, new boardwalks and overhead electric power. Civil work included construction of a mono-fill waste site for all construction debris and development of a borrow pit site to build a new sewage lagoon with 13ft dikes. The new lagoon is surrounded by fencing on helical piles. Also, the capping of two land farm sites and treatment of and capping of an abandoned sewage lagoon along with the existing old school lagoon; new site utilities such as poles and high voltage power lines, including a new generator module and new water and fuel storage tanks; new board roads and the relocation of an existing play deck and storage building.
Napaskiak is approximately 7 river miles from Bethel. The village is accessible by small river boats during the summer, ice road during winter and by air year-around. Bethel devised a logistics plan availing of the limited space in Napaskiak by staging some materials in Bethel at BNC’s equipment yard. The majority of the village is swamp and scheduling the movement of materials via the ice road helped to avoid damages to freight if submerged in water or frozen in local soils during the winter. Construction materials and equipment were first barged from Seattle and Anchorage to Bethel via line haul ocean barges. As material stored in the village was used, more freight was moved to Napaskiak from Bethel. Freight was trans-loaded to lighter barges for shipment to Napaskiak when the river was open, and during the winter months the ice road was used to move the balance of materials to the jobsite as needed.
The new school construction necessitated mobilizing and moving the piles and vertical steel frame to Napaskiak along with the man camp prior to delivery of building materials. Materials were stored and the man camp was built, approx. 1 mile from the new school site, is this location was the only stable dry ground in the village. The vertical work started in spring and continued through winter. Protection of the tundra was a feature of the contract, and Bethel installed 360 mud-mats for road access through the summer periods for men and materials moving from the man camp and the barge landing area to the jobsite. Part of the first phase included clearing the borrow site to expose the fill material to build the new lagoon, and building a pad for the mono-fill area for the main building and its construction waste above the high water mark.
The next portion of the contract included the construction of the new lagoon when the ground was frozen. The self-performed civil team moved the materials from the borrow site to the new lagoon location 1.2 miles each way. The team had to grub and stock pile the organics at the new lagoon site, move new fill material to the lagoon site, and remove organics and haul to the borrow site for disposal in the area where borrow materials where removed from. Bethel had two civil crews, one at each location to ensure success of the lagoon construction within schedule/weather constraints.
The unseasonable warm winter delayed the dirt work but Bethel devised a work-around to mitigate the late occurring firm ground. Bethel hired additional crews to work at night when the ground was firmer. Although the period of winter civil work was short Bethel completed the sewage lagoon for inclusion in the handover of the main building 6 month ahead of schedule and avoided waiting for another season to complete the lagoon, thereby saving the Owner money and allowing school to open on time. Bethel’s ability to adapt and change plans avoided adding costly delays to the Owner for factors out of our control. Bethel self-performed civil work, carpentry and fencing employing many local people from Bethel and Napaskiak. Hiring locally reduced the stress on the man camp and assured success.
Client
Lower Kuskokwim School District
Location
Napaskiak, Alaska
Period of Performance
2016-2018
Contract Value
$28.0M