Sewer project clogged
BY VICI PAPAJOHN Gulf Breeze News vici@gulfbreezenews.com

Crews from Tindle Enterprises, Inc. work to finish the septic tank abatement project on Fairpoint Drive. The construction firm was scheduled to finish the project by August but has been hindered by unforeseen obstacles.

Since early summer, Tindle Enterprises, Inc. has been struggling to complete a septic tank abatement project along Fairpoint Drive, North Sunset and Highpoint Drive. When the company signed on to provide sewer facilities to 52 homes the project was expected to be completed by early August. The project has stalled again and again.

The contractor attempted numerous different techniques to bury the lift station and the pipes to the contracted depth. A gas main break in early October added to delays when the contractor pierced the steel gas main and a large leak resulted. Assistance was needed from ESP in Pensacola to repair the main, further delaying the project.

"Basically, the contractor bid on a project according to city standards and guidelines, and once they got into it, found they could not meet the depth required for the natural fall with gravity," explains Gulf Breeze City Manager Edwin "Buz" Eddy. "Clay layers were part of the problem, but mostly depth."

At its Nov. 19 meeting, the Gulf Breeze City Council was informed that continuing with the original design would result in a May 2008 completion date. They decided to consider alternative solutions including changing to a new contractor using the performance bond posted by Tindle, or changing the desired elevation of the sewer line for the incomplete section of the project.

The council voted to recommend city staff change the desired elevation by three to five feet. Eddy advised the council in a memo that with the modified design, the contractor should be finished with the job by the end of January, and the city could save as much as $50,000 as the modifications would considerably speed the process.

"These people on Highpoint and Sunset have suffered enough," Gulf Breeze Mayor Lane Gilchrist said to the council. "We need to move forward and do what we can to ensure that this project is completed quickly."

Eddy's memo advised that the downside to the option was that an additional lift station "will be necessary on the northeast side of this project if future expansion is undertaken."

"If the system is ever expanded, up North Sunset or Julia (Way) or Laura (Lane), we may need another lift where we hadn't planned on one," Eddy clarifies. "We are hoping to have contract discounts that will offset that future potential expense. We are still working on price adjustments which must go through the county."

Tindle Enterprises, Inc. is a company out of the Panama City area that is regularly used by Santa Rosa County and the Florida Department of Transportation. Calls to Tindle Enterprises, Inc. were not returned prior to press time.

"I am optimistic that the project will flow smoothly with the news standards," Eddy assures. "When you try to retrofit a project into an existing neighborhood, it does not always work the way you planned. Any future expansions will have to take the depth into consideration. The shallower line will have an impact on future expansion."