Wednesday, July 2, 2003
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Wednesday, July 2, 2003 |
Another $75K needed for Lake Peachtree dredgingBy JOHN
MUNFORD
Because of a delay in getting the project started and numerous rains before it got underway, it will cost more money to dredge Lake Peachtree than originally planned. County consulting engineer David Jaeger said the extra cost will end up around $75,000. The entire contract was originally set at $632,000, but that was based on excavating a certain amount of the silt, Jaeger explained. The original survey for the project which called for 22,000 cubic yards of silt to be removed was performed months before the dredging process began, Jaeger noted. After the survey, silt continued to collect at the lake bottom, also because of rains the area received, he said. The Fayette County Commission approved spending more money for the dredging project so it could avoid having to lower the level of the lake, which could have cut short the county's water supply temporarily and perhaps caused environmental damage. The commission instead could have saved money by going with a less expensive process to remove the silt that would have required lowering the lake's level. But the county had plenty of funds on hand for the project due to revenues from water bills. The county must dredge the lake periodically as part of a contract with the city, which owns the lake, for using it as a drinking water reservoir. The project, which involves excavating the silt to Drake Field so it could dry, included trucking the dry material off-site.
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