Lake Forest Park
Work on the installation of the city’s new sewer system was abruptly stopped Jan. 14 when the contractor moved equipment beyond a designated work site on 28th Avenue Northeast in Lake Forest Park.
Trenchless Construction Services, LLC, has used the location since their construction on the city’s sewage system began last September. Because the site is located on private property and an agreement between the contractor and the landowner was turned into the city before construction began, Dane Ireland — foreman for Trenchless Construction — believed the only thing left to be done was install the sewer system.
He was wrong. When the city began receiving e-mails and phone calls about a possible wetland disturbance at the site, city officials arrived on site to take a look. The company was found to have encroached further than the disturbed site onto previously undisturbed land.
Though the site has not been named a wetland, city administrator David Cline said the city and contractor are adhering to the strictest requirements.
“(Trenchless) has been very compliant,” Cline said. “There wasn’t an initial permit required to be a staging area because it’s already a disturbed site. There was a driveway, a spot from the private owner … the difficulty in getting permits is when you want to do more and disturb more of the property. And they went beyond.”
Ireland said he wasn’t aware of the need for a permit until Jan. 14 when the order was issued. And had he known, he would have paid the $250 permitting fee months ago when the company arrived on site.
“We didn’t actually apply for a permit, we didn’t know we had to do this, being private property,” he said. “There is no official mapping stating this is a wetland. There’s no official flagging showing where the sensitive area is.”
The city received messages from residents who were concerned about work being done without the proper permit. A nameless stream from Shoreline runs in front of the site and was also a concern of residents.
“(Residents) were upset that we were blindly filling in and they were under the impression that we were moving trees,” Ireland said. “When we came in here the blackberry and California grass was all grown up and now you can see clear as day right through so it looks like we’ve done a lot but all we’ve done is moved bushes and flattened existing asphalt piles.”
The order required Trenchless Construction to vacate the site within two weeks and the company moved items from the site until a sensitive area work permit was issued Jan. 18 for the company to remain on site as long as permit requirements include such things as no tree removal and temporary erosion control measures such as the use of silt fences, visqueen and hay bales occur.
“These guys have been pretty good to work with,” city building official Calvin Thielman said. “They weren’t told anything about this being a sensitive area, they had really no idea but these guys have been right on in trying to comply and get everything fixed.”
Cline said the city does not know how long Trenchless Construction has been working in the newly disturbed areas but he is glad the matter was brought to the city’s attention.
“We always have very watchful people here and we need to find a better way that we can work with everyone,” he said. “Some of the e-mails were very vociferous in their concerns. So that’s the level of scrutiny we work under and we’ll be responsive to.”
Meanwhile, 50 percent of the contract with Trenchless Construction has yet to be filled, according to Ireland. He anticipates another two months of work ahead of him and his crew.
“We have work to do and we’re not leaving,” he said.
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