Boone County is spending nearly $300,000 to address unstable clay soil at its new parks department headquarters site.
On July 22, the Boone County Fiscal Court authorized a change order of $296,700 to cover soil abatement and stabilization work for the parks building construction project. The new park building is currently under construction on a 4.69‑acre plot at 5635 Maplewood Drive in Burlington.
Boone County’s Deputy Administrator, Matthew Dowling, stated that during construction, the soil was found to contain clay, which could negatively impact foundational activities of the project.
According to
coloradogeologicalsurvey.org
, soil containing clay is challenging to build on because the material reacts to moisture, which can cause it to expand or swell over time if not properly managed. This can result in cracks and other types of structural damage.
“Over the past several months, the construction of the future Boone County Parks building has been ongoing,” Dowling said. “As construction excavation was taking place, two key site locations were found to have expansive clay material in the soil.”
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Dowling said the initial area of concern is within the top 18 inches of the sub-grade in the garage slab zone. The engineering team recommended removing the top 18 inches of soil and replacing it with dense, graded aggregate. The second area of concern was found in the parking lot. The soils caused the proof roll, which is a preliminary stability test of the subgrade, to fail, prompting the engineering team to suggest cement stabilization as the solution.
“Construction costs are never ideal,” Dowling said. “Soil conditions can be difficult to predict, but are critically important to the structural integrity of the facility.”
Dowling stated that soil samples from the nearly five-acre plot were tested before construction commenced; however, the two areas in question were not sampled.
“There was soil sampling testing throughout the entire site,” he said. “The sampling only covers so many different areas, and this just happened to be in the areas that it wasn’t sampled.”
Boone County Administrator Matthew Webster warned that failing to respond could result in damage to the park’s building once it’s completed.
“Well, the building sinks, I guess, into the mud at some point,” he said. “I mean, you’re gonna have a situation where we’re putting heavy equipment and vehicles over there on asphalt that you know is not on a stabilized environment.”
Boone County Judge/Executive Gary Moore emphasized the importance of taking the proper measures to ensure the project’s success.
“When you get this kind of news, there’s not much option,” Moore said. “We sure don’t want concrete that’ll be poured on this to fail, and the other things that would go along with that if we didn’t.”
In 2023,
Boone County unveiled renderings for its new Parks Department headquarters
. The building plans indicate that the facility will be a pre-engineered metal building that spans approximately 30,000 square feet, with an additional 4,000 square feet of covered storage space on the second floor.
The design is by Hub + Weber, an architecture firm based in Cincinnati. Boone County’s Mark Spaulding Construction serves as the project’s general contractor.
According to plans presented in May 2023, the new facility will include offices, a lobby, training and conference rooms, a break room, locker rooms with showers, service bays, and storage for equipment, vehicles and materials. The total project cost was around $8 million, covering construction, site preparation, and remediation.
The parks department manages 18 parks across Boone County, employing about 25 staff members. Once completed, the new building will serve as a central hub for staff, programs, and equipment storage, effectively functioning as the department’s headquarters.
LINK nky previously reported
that county staff believed the department’s current offices, located at 5958 Garrard St. in Burlington, lacked adequate space and public access. Its current offices are converted single-family homes.
“Every construction project has some ebbs and flows and things that you didn’t anticipate,” Webster said.
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