City engineers: Snoqualmie Valley Hospital project requires BP pump station wet-well expansion

Patrick Fry, a project engineer with Parks and Public Works, told the committee on Feb. 3 that the Business Park (BP) pump station must be enlarged to serve a planned expansion at Snoqualmie Valley Hospital.

Fry said the pump station has a firm capacity of 750 gallons per minute (GPM) and currently operates at "about 710, 711 GPM" at peak hourly factor. "The hospital intends on adding 49 GPM," Fry said, which would leave the station roughly 10 GPM short of firm capacity and could increase pump cycles and premature wear.

City staff described several technical options — wet-well expansion, upsizing pumps or force mains, or adding a jockey pump — but Fry said data logging and initial analysis made the decision clear. "Moving forward, the way to go was expanding the wet well," he said, and staff therefore narrowed the alternatives analysis to move directly to final design.

Fry told the committee the original alternatives analysis contract signed in September was described as $98,000; by narrowing scope the alternatives analysis cost was reported as $38,000 and the final design cost $47,000, leaving "a balance of $12,000 or closer to $13,000," according to his presentation. He also stated that the contract allowed staff to continue to final design without additional council action; transcript remarks contained an inconsistent reference to a $498,000 figure, which staff did not clarify during the meeting.

On funding and cost allocation, Fry said the hospital requested a certificate of sewer availability and "the owner is on the Snoqualmie Valley Hospital to pay for this," adding that SVH has reimbursed design costs and staff expect the hospital to reimburse construction costs as well. "Otherwise it would be ratepayers that have to pay for this update that wouldn't have been happening otherwise," Fry said.

Staff said the wet-well option was both the most economical and the quickest to implement; Fry reported he had 90% drawings and hoped to advertise a bid by the end of the month to maintain an accelerated schedule. If procurement and permitting proceed on that timeline, construction could occur in summer with a target completion aligned to the hospital’s fall opening schedule.

The committee did not take a final vote on a construction contract at the meeting; Fry's presentation served to update members and seek concurrence to proceed with final design and bid preparation.

The committee moved on to the broader Capital Improvement Program following the pump-station update.