Engineer outlines plan for replacement of Pleasanton water plant roof
- Roger Sims, Journal Staff
- 20 minutes ago
- 4 min read
By Roger Sims, Journal staff
PLEASANTON – An engineer’s assessment of the Pleasanton water plant is that city officials have little choice but to stabilize the structure supporting the rafters on the building that houses the filters and clarifier, cover the filters and clarifier, pump the city’s two towers full of water and then replace the roof, rafters and all.
Jason Hopkins, an engineer with BG Consultants Inc., told the Pleasanton City Council in a special meeting on Wednesday, Feb. 10, that looking at other options would take too long. He said that going to another water supplier (such as Public Wholesale Water Supply District No. 13) would take at least a year to get through Kansas Department of Health and Environment (KDHE) permitting procedure.
He is expected to bring a contract for the council to vote on at its Feb. 17 meeting. That contract would set into motion work by the company’s engineering team to develop specifications for the needed structure repairs and roof replacement.
Following that, the project would go out for bid. He estimated the cost to be $100,000 to $150,000.
At the end of the special meeting, City Attorney Jacklyn Paletta reminded the council that, because it was the only water supply, the city would incur a liability with failing to provide water for the entire community of potable water.
Hopkins indicated that even if time and money were not an issue, for the city to begin construction on a completely new plant, it would take up to three years to design, build and get necessary approval from the Kansas Department of Health and Environment (KDHE) on a new water plant, he added. He estimated the cost for the new plant at $1.5 million to $2 million.
Hopkins inspected the building on Feb. 4 along with an architect from the company. He said the block walls of the building are in “pretty good shape” with some cracks but nothing alarming.
However he said that numerous rafters appear to be failing.
“You’ve got a bunch of them that are cracked,” Hopkins said.
However, the immediate problem is a wood column in the middle of the building that supports beams. That 10-foot column is leaning 3 inches to one side.
“If that column were to fail, the whole roof would come down.” Hopkins said, adding that the beam that should rest on the column has moved a little. “I don’t know what it would take for it to come down.”
He said that people on the roof or a heavy snow storm could cause the roof structure to collapse.
“If it comes down,” he said, “you’re out of the water business.”
So the first item of attack will be to shore up and support the beams. The next item will be to remove and reroute the existing electrical conduit that is fastened to the roof. Once the column and beams are supported by additional columns, the next step is demolition, and that, Hopkins said, will be the difficult part.
City officials indicated that the city’s two towers could hold enough water to allow usage for two days.
In that case, the engineer said, the work could be done in stages, being reactivated as stored water supply runs low and then shutting it down again for a couple days to restart construction.
Hopkins said that by using trusses instead of onsite framing, the building could be covered within a couple of days. Trusses could be built offsite, and their use would eliminate the need for the beams currently in place.
He estimated the whole project from design, bidding and construction could be done within three months.
Councilmember Alex Wills asked if it would be better to get a backup system in place, such as connecting to Public Wholesale Water Supply District No. 13.
“If you don’t take that first step your never moving forward,” Wills said. “We can add that.”
It’s better to have a backup supply, Hopkins said. But the wholesale district will want to use its own engineers to plan the hook up before handing it over to BG Consultants.
Mayor Mathew Young said that a pipe from Rural Water District No. 2 was run to the citys plant but had not been used for a number of years.
In a separate interview with City Administrator Becky Hegwald on Thursday following the special meeting, she said Hopkins’ presentation made her feel more hopeful that there was a resolution to the problem.
“It sounds better than when we first heard it,” she said adding that her initial reaction was shock and panic.
She said that while there is some money in the city’s water improvement fund, more will be needed.
