2009-11-19

First load-bearing wall, now pumping parking lot

By Judith Pannebaker

By a 3-1 vote on Thursday, Nov. 12, Bandera County Commissioners released nearly $233,670 of retainage fees previously held back for the new jail and justice center and road and bridge facility still under construction on Highway 173 North.

Precinct 2 Commissioner Bobby Harris protested the release of the funds which left a little less than $70,000 in the county cookie jar “as a carrot” to ensure the projects would be completed satisfactorily.

Apparently, the remaining funds are not only earmarked to complete 34 items remaining on a punch list for the jail and justice center, but also to redo an area of the parking lot at the jail and justice center.

As noted in commissioners court, a portion of the lot is “pumping,” which apparently is not a good thing. As Harris explained, if the lot is completed without redoing the base, the top “will be destroyed within six months.” To correct the situation, the subgrade of the lot must be repaired and stabilized.

“Do you think $3,000 left in the retainage will cover correcting the pumping situation?” Harris asked Wayne Gondeck, AIA of San Antonio’s DRG Architects. This amount had been estimated as the value of the work.

Although seemingly nonplussed by the question, Gondeck eventually answered in the affirmative. Referring to the $69,000, he said, “The retainage can be applied to one item or numerous items. The county is not obligated to make anymore payments.”

County Judge Richard Evans also noted that an additional $12,000 of “unencumbered retainage” could be applied to the road and bridge facility.

In a later interview, Precinct 1 Commissioner Bruce Eliker, a former administrator with the Texas Department of Transportation, explained that pumping is caused when a base of crushed limestone has been applied over a wet natural ground subgrade during the parking lot’s construction. Harris added the subgrade might not have been compactly to 95 percent density, which exacerbated the problem.

“When trucks drive over the parking lot, they leave clearly visible tire tracks that recover over time,” Harris said. He added that this would put undue stress on the material, causing the surface to break.

According to Eliker, the chip seal topcoat hasn’t been applied to the parking lot, which will make correcting the problem easier.
“I just hope there’s not a spring feeding under the parking lot,” Harris noted.