Suit receives green light

FORT SMITH — The board at its meeting Tuesday authorizes the city administrator and city attorney to proceed with a lawsuit involving engineering and construction contracts on the May Branch Outfall culvert replacement project.

The city would hold off on filing a lawsuit if Administrator Carl Geffken obtains an agreement of all involved parties, including civil engineering company Mickle Wagner Coleman and Mobley Contractors, to extend the parties’ tolling agreement for remediation work for the project beyond its current deadline of Dec. 31.

This issue was previously discussed during a study session Nov. 12. Stan Snodgrass, the engineering department director, wrote in a memo to Geffken that Mickle Wagner Coleman entered into an agreement with the city Nov. 2, 2011, to provide both engineering and testing services on the project.

The city and Mobley entered into a $5,490,387 construction contract Oct. 2, 2012. Final completion and payment under the contract was Dec. 16, 2014, although sinkholes appeared in the vicinity of the box culvert by May 2015.

On April 18, 2017, the city entered into a three-party agreement with Mobley and Mickle Wagner Coleman and Data Testing, regarding remediation work for the culvert, Snodgrass said. The cost of the remediation work — $116,538 — was split three ways, with the city paying $38,846.

Snodgrass said as the Arkansas River was receding after the flooding in May, additional depressed or sinking areas near the downstream end of the box culvert were noted. A walk-through inspection of the culvert was done July 31, with numerous deficiencies noted. An extensive elevation survey in the box culvert also showed significant movement or settlement of the culvert.