Cost estimates soar for slope stabilization project
The stabilization of a slump-prone bluff off Whitefish Stage Road has been stalled because Flathead County received no bids from contractors to complete the work.
The estimated cost of stabilizing the bluff, located near the Village Greens subdivision and golf course, also has more than doubled, to nearly $1 million.
Homeowners whose property adjoins the slump area have been working for five years to find a way to stabilize a section of the bluff that first collapsed in 2010. A second slide occurred in June 2014 following record rainfall.
After homeowners were successful in getting a $400,000 slope stabilization mitigation grant from the Federal Emergency Management Agency, the project was stymied in April 2014 when the Flathead County commissioners declined to serve as the sponsoring government agency.
The commissioners expressed concern about the county’s liability if the slope work were to fail.
Homeowners Scott Gearhart and Susan Storfa then sued the county and a Flathead District Court judge ordered the county commissioners to follow through with the federal grant.
The project engineer recently informally asked local contractors about the estimated cost and learned the stabilization could cost $950,000 or more, county grant writer Whitney Aschenwald said.
“FEMA has some additional funds available the homeowners could apply for, but the homeowners would need 25 percent in matching funds,” she said. “We’re giving homeowners time to come up with the required match.”
About $290,000 of the original project budget of $400,000 remains for the actual stabilization work, which leaves a gap of roughly $675,000, Aschenwald said. The cost overrun grant application to FEMA would be for $506,250 in additional money, she said.
In the cost overrun scenario, the homeowners’ match would be $168,750.
Gearhart, whose townhome is located near the bluff, said a plan is in the works to see if fill dirt from the forthcoming Glacier Rail Park could be used for the slope stabilization.
“For our portion of [matching] contribution, we want to secure a letter from the Flathead County Economic Development Authority” for the fill material, Gearhart said, explaining the stabilization will take about 17,000 cubic yards of soil and the rail park has to remove some 200,000 cubic yards as that facility is developed.
He and other homeowners met this week with Kim Morisaki, project manager for the economic development authority, to discuss the soil removal plan.
Morisaki said the economic development authority board is interested in looking at the possibility.
“If what they do is possible and the material we have is useful to them ... the board is interested in whatever opportunities we could provide. We have a lot of dirt that has to be removed,” Morisaki said.
An engineering report estimated the value of the soil and placement of the soil needed for the stabilization at $176,000.
Features editor Lynnette Hintze may be reached at 758-4421 or by email at lhintze@dailyinterlake.com.