BIDDEFORD — City councilors have agreed to installation of a temporary structure in the Saco River called a cofferdam so engineers can determine the full extent of damage and prepare a detailed plan for repairs after recent heavy rains took out 77 feet of embankment and damaged part of the Biddeford RiverWalk .
The damage is near the Overlook portion of the RiverWalk, which has been barricaded for safety reasons.
The cofferdam itself will cost about $400,000 to $500,000 but is necessary, Biddeford municipal officials said. Cofferdams allow water to be diverted, so engineers and contractors can see exactly what they are dealing with.
City Engineer Tom Milligan said a cofferdam will allow for a forensic approach to determine the cause of the problem, any potential impact on the nearby smokestack, and more.
“We need to get answers before we can make any really good decisions,” said Milligan. “We need to get in there and take a good hard look to increase the probability we get it right.”
“This is a big deal,” said Public Works Director Jeff Demers, who told the City Council it is probably the largest project he has been involved with since he began working for the city.
In all, a preliminary estimate of the work to be done to repair the damage is between $1.5 to $2 million, Demers said at an emergency meeting of the City Council on Nov. 3.
“The specific plan is to bring someone in immediately … to have (the cofferdam) constructed very quickly so we can get engineers on board to advise us what we have to do,” City Manager Jim Bennett told the City Council.
According to the National Weather Service, 6.72 inches of rain fell on Biddeford in the Oct. 30 to Oct. 31 storm.
Codes Enforcement Officer Roby Fecteau, who was on the scene early on, told the City Council he was able to get information from the National Weather Service on the amount of water coming down the Saco River from Conway, New Hampshire, and then called Brookfield Energy, which operates the dams along the river. “We ended up being able to channel the water to the east channel, so it helped alleviate any further erosion,” he said. Fecteau said he also contacted Doug Sanford, owner of the Pepperell Mill, who, he said, had his maintenance personnel look at the smokestack and found no further damage at the stack.
The plan for repairs is to go ahead on a “time and materials” basis, with engineers and contractors, Bennett said, and bypassing the usual bid process in order to get the repairs done quickly.
The city has billed its insurance company and is also pursuing reimbursement from the Maine and federal emergency management agencies, he said.
Maine needs to have incurred a minimum of $2.2 million in damage in order to apply to the federal government for an emergency declaration, Fecteau said, a necessary step before any FEMA reimbursements can be considered. If a reimbursement is approved, FEMA would pay 75 percent, the state 15 percent, and the city 10 percent of repairs.
The threshold is expected to be met. The damage in Biddeford alone is expected to be close to that figure, Fecteau said, and there has been damage in other areas of the state, most notably in the midcoast.
An examination by the city attorney of an easement for the RiverWalk shows clearly that damage is the city’s responsibility, Bennett said.
In the event neither insurance nor FEMA money is available, the city is “in the best financial shape in a long time,” with a $2 million surplus, he said.
Council President John McCurry said he favors getting the damage repaired, and suggested that if the city must pay for all or most of the repairs that it use money set aside for an extension of the RiverWalk near the parking garage, rather than tapping surplus.
Councilor Marc Lessard asked if the Overlook itself is compromised.
About 15 feet underneath is washed out, Demers said, and once the contractor is able to dig down around it, they will be able to tell if it can remain. “I hope we can put pourable concrete in and save it,” he said. “If it comes to the point it is unsafe, we take it out.”
Demers said he had been in touch with the Saco River Corridor Commission and was told by Director Dalyn Houser that “you’ve got to do what you need to, to prevent erosion.”
The Overlook was designed in about 2010 or 2011.
The embankment walls “are older than the collective age of several of us,” Milligan said.
Once recommendations of exactly how to proceed are complete, the matter would be brought back to the City Council for a vote.
The eight councilors present — Ashanti Williams was unable to attend the 11 am. meeting — unanimously agreed to move forward with the current plan.
Except for the Overlook area, the RiverWalk remains open.
Comments are not available on this story.
Send questions/comments to the editors.
