WSPC03491

• File Number: 8220.106.O
• Description: Colorado River Water Projects - Animas La Plata - Project Funding
• State: CO
• Basin: Colorado Mainstem
• Water Division: 5
• Date: 11/1/2003
• Author: DOI-BOR
• Title: Animas La Plata Project - Construction Cost Estimates - Report to the Secretary - November 2003
• Water Supply Pro - Doc Type: Report/Study

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Plant (DPP) by the TSC in December 2001 and completed in 2002. As a result of
consultations with Reclamation, La Plata County assumed the lead for public
meetings in April 2002 to select a relocation route for the part of County
Road ,211 within Ridges Basin.

The first Project construction contract to complete cultural resources
investigations was awarded in April 2002. The amount of the initial contracts
awarded was relatively small ($1-3 million), but the costs were higher than the
Independent Govemment Cost Estimate (lGCE). Final designs were completed
on features of the DPP and the Ridges Basin Dam in January 2003.

Three separate actions triggered the development of a 2003 PCE. First, Project
management staff initiated updating as part of customary construction practices.
Second, the initial construction contracts awarded in 2002, while individually
minor when compared to the total PCE, were significantly above Reclamation's
lGCE in each case. And finally, results of estimates for final designs and actual
site conditions included changes on major features that would result in significant
cost increases.

D. Development of the 2003 Project Cost Estimate

Reclamation began developing the new PCE in early 2003. A draft was available
for internal peer review in June 2003. The final draft PCE contained a total
estimate of $500 million, based on January 2003 price levels, and was completed
in July 2003.

Changes in the cost estimate to construct the Durango Pumping Plant and two
components of Ridges Basin Dam (relocation of gas pipelines and County Road
211) resulted in significant increases in the estimate. The total estimated cost
increase for construction ofthe DPP feature of the ALP Project is $52 million.
The majority ofthe~e costs ($38 million) are associated with significant increases
in the quantities of material and types of material (e.g., bedrock rather than soil)
that must be excavated and proj ect management and site support costs in
constructing the DPP. Neither the requirement for increased excavation nor the
type of material at the site were identified and included in the initial design
concepts developed by the contractor for the DPP. In addition, Reclamation did
not identify these significant omissions until completing final designs for the
DPP. An example of projected cost increases associated with site support is the
use of equipment such as large cranes to complete multiple pours of concrete.
Adjustments made to improve the visual esthetics accounted for about $200
thousand of the increase cost estimate of$52 million. The DPP was rotated 90
degrees in the final design to prevent excavation from encroaching within 100 feet
of a fault line, thus preventing the mixing of two ground water streams, one of
which is contaminated by uranium tailings. Reclamation construction staff have
not identified any increase in cost of the DPP because of the rotation.

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