Since the beginning of summer, when Seattle Public Utilities agreed that its four underground reservoirs – including ours – might fail in a catastrophic earthquake, a good question has been: What will the city do about it?
Now the West Seattle Blog has at least a partial answer.
The West Seattle Reservoir, together with the Maple Leaf, Beacon Hill and Myrtle reservoirs, need retrofitting after it was discovered contractors used a construction formula designed for above ground, not underground, reservoirs.
Yes, we know the new Maple Leaf Reservoir Park – on top of the underground reservoir – just opened last fall.
First on the list for retrofitting is West Seattle, which went into service four years ago. The work is expected to cost over $7 million.
According to an earlier West Seattle Blog post (and one of ours, too): “First thing you should know is: SPU says the reservoirs ‘are in no danger of catastrophic failure,’ even without the retrofits.”
It was stressed that none of the reservoirs will have to be dug back open for these retrofits – the work will be done inside, with crews and equipment accessing through existing maintenance hatches.
This week the West Seattle Blog reported work is about to start on the reservoir there and will run through March. It also posted a copy of the construction notice (pdf).
It says, in part:
Why do you still live here if everything makes you fed up?
They’re going to laminate some more of our money, and line the reservoirs with them. Sorry but this kind of thing is getting incredibly old.
One way to interpret this is these reservoirs have turned into WPA-like welfare streams. Contractors worked on the one under our park for 11 years and apparently too many people became dependent on the income stream.
Nice way of extrapolating what will probably take place beneath the Reservoir Park.
Might SPU get some sort of refund for the contractor’s SNAFU? Given what’s happened with big Bertha and now this, perhaps the operative phrase for major government construction projects will become: First Things Last.