The Sedona City Council approved an 11th change order for the Forest Road Extension project at its Sept. 10 meeting, which will increase Fann Contracting’s contract value on the project by an additional $1,474,527. This is in addition to the previous change order approved by the City Council on July 9, which increased the project’s cost by $3,777,950.

According to the city's latest project figures submitted with the change order, the total cost of the contract with Fan increased from $10,683,253 to $16,945,572.

The estimated cost of the entire expansion project was $1.3 million as of April 2017, $2,772,047 as of October 2019, $9.1 million as of March 2023, $20.4 million as of June 2023 for the fiscal year 2024 budget, and $21,002,901 as of May 2024 for the fiscal year 2025 budget.

Assistant Engineer Bob Welch told the City Council the latest change orders include soil nailing, “shifting,” trenching to relocate utilities and moving loose soil, with individual costs coming in at $738,151, $395,000, $339,550 and $1,825, respectively.

“The contract called for the installation of rock bolts near the entrance. [State Route] “Excavation on Route 89A where Forest Road comes in revealed foundation conditions that were not related to the installation of rock bolts. We called in a geotechnical tactical engineer to assess the situation,” Welch said. [determined] “We decided to use soil nailing on site because rock bolting is not a viable application here. The application of soil nailing is costly as it requires more soil nailing and grouting, approximately double the number of soil nailing and grouting.”

Rock bolting and soil nailing both involve the insertion of metal rods into earthworks to provide stabilisation, and differ primarily in whether the rods are actively or passively stressed.

In response to a question from City Councilman Brian Fultz, Welch said that if the change order was not approved and the retaining soil was not completed, the slope in question would continue to erode further and the adjacent debris collection area “would have to be cleaned regularly.”

“What lessons have we learned from this for the future?” asked Deputy Mayor Holli Ploog. “There were utilities we didn't know existed, and delays because of relocations. That's all on us. Not the fault of APS or Optimum or anyone else. What can we do better to mitigate this as much as possible up front?”

Public Works Director Curt Harris and his staff “met with some of the utility companies that we've had issues with recently and let them know we expect them to be more cooperative going forward,” Deputy Mayor Andy Dickey said.

Harris told the council that city staff “hopefully” would work on mapping all public facilities using the city's GIS system, but he was quick to add that this information would not be made public due to “confidentiality.” He also noted that the city experienced a similar issue with unidentified public facilities during design work on Ranger Station Park. “Luckily, we did it in-house, otherwise that project would have been significantly over budget,” Harris said.

Welch said there was a “lack of urgency at APS” as a result of the response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

“This is change order number 11. Will there be a 12, a 13?” Fultz asked. “How many more chances does it have of making this product even more expensive?”

“We hope this is the last time,” Welch said. “We're trying every single thing we can to save money.”

“What are the chances of losing another $1 million?” Fultz asked.

“Very few,” Welch said.

“So are there any plans to bring forward additional contract amendments?” Deputy Mayor Holly Ploog asked Welch on July 9.

“I hope that never happens,” Welch said at the time. “Of course, things happen.”

“We don't want to spend any more money on this project,” Ploog said.

Mayor Scott Jablow described the repeated price increases as “exorbitant excesses.” [the city] budget.”

The council then unanimously approved spending an additional $1.47 million.

The tentative completion date for the extension is currently March 28, but Welch told council “negotiations on that are still ongoing.”