MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — Renovations at the Excel Center are now scheduled to be completed in June, 2024, a month than the initial goal.
Project engineers and architects from Triad Engineering and Williamson Shriver told the Monongalia County Board of Education poor soil conditions have caused a 28-day delay in the completion of the Excel Center at Mylan Park. The delays in the $3.6 million renovation project were prompted by a study by Triad engineers that discovered poor soil conditions that will cost about $171,000 to mitigate.
“We got a report from Triad indicating that we have pyritic soil; an investigation proved that we have pyritic soil; Triad put a plan together on how to remediate the situation,” said Williamson Shriver Architecture Jason Shantie. “That delay equated to about 28 days,” he said.
Both Shantie and the engineers at Triad stated that the construction firm, City Construction, originally estimated that approximately $300,000 was needed to address the foundation, but the actual cost totaled $171,000. The work involved additional excavation around the foundation and backfill with suitable material to stabilize the area. This change would allow for construction on the renovations to continue without further delays outside of the 28-day window or going over the $3.6 million budget.
“They (City Construction) took out two feet of the soil, over-excavated down two feet underneath the slab, and three and a half feet underneath the foundations, backfilling with crush and run,” said Shantie on how the pyritic soil was addressed. “So we could get out of the pyritic soil enough that they (Triad) felt comfortable and that we could go proceed with the installation of the foundation,” he said.
According to Triad engineers and Williamson Shriver architects, the poor soil that is commonly found at the Excel Center’s Mylan Park location was not initially discovered during the site survey prior to the bid.
Board of Education President Ron Lytle stated that the remediation of the problem was news he did not want to hear due to the history of projects around Mylan Park. While he stated the moves made by the construction team were reasonable, the situation could’ve been completely avoided and possibly could have affected the project’s bidding process if the scenario was originally accounted for.
“My expectations for what was to be expected and wasn’t to be there, with the history of Mylan Park and the construction out there, there are certain things that should have been assumed, in my opinion,” said Lytle.
Aside from the 28-day delay in construction, renovations to the Excel Center are expected to move forward as planned with no changes to the construction team or any overages on the projected budget. The renovations at the Excel Center will include additional classrooms, a redesign of the entrance, expanded gym space, and a staff common area. With the original May 2024 completion date now extended by one month, both members of the construction team and the Monongalia County Board of Education hope that no more delays will take place and construction will continue.
“I’m satisfied at this point; what’s way more important than the speed of the project is the quality,” said Lytle. “If an institution is looking 20 years down the road, what are the effects that the construction would have on a facility twenty years, thirty years from now? It’s not acceptable not to do a good project,” he said.