Alternative Well Plan Presented to North Judson Town Council Members

Posted on January 15, 2019
Author Jacque Ryan, WKVI

Project officials are addressing concerns over plans for an above-ground well enclosure at Norwayne Field.

Project Engineer Rob Bellucci from CommonWealth Engineers came before the North Judson Town Council last week with a proposed project amendment.

As a reminder, the Town is moving forward with the addition of an off-site well to address an Indiana Department of Environmental Management requirement. Project officials told members and meeting attendees last Monday that the placement of this well was also stipulated by IDEM.

Originally, there was a plan to place it more out of the way but when IDEM officials came in for a site check, they determined the proposed location wasn’t going to work and specified the well would have to be placed at the current location due to stringent setback requirements.

Since the location cannot be changed this far into the project, Project Manager Belluci coordinated with contractors to come up with another solution. He said they could eliminate the above ground well house and construct a ‘pit-less’ type well that would place 95 percent of the well underground.

He noted that with this version, there would only be a small duct line pipe protruding out of the ground. He added that the option to include a decorative, rock-like feature to disguise the pipe has been incorporated into the amended plan.

Bellucci said that with the plan amendments, the net impact on the project cost was an increase of $21,700.

He added, “We do have sufficient contingency funds built into the job to cover this cost and should the town elect to pursue this option, we would obviously, actively work with the contractors during construction to come up with some other value engineering options to offset this cost.”

The general consensus from the council members who weighed in on the matter was that this was a good solution to the problem but no official actions were taken at the time.

Bellucci specified that the proposed project amendment would not be officially incorporated into the plans until the crews selected to perform the work are under contract.

He said once the construction contracts are signed then change orders can be executed. The change order will only be submitted if council members decide to carry forward with amended plan.