Work to remove the soil stockpile from land adjacent to Dunphy Park began last week after the homeless encampment was forcibly removed to Marinship Park.
The city contracted with Eleven Engineering, Inc. of Petaluma for the job. It is expected to be fully removed within 75 days.
Due to its high lead content, a majority of the approximately 3,300 cubic yards of soil will be hauled to a landfill site near Bakersfield that is certified for toxic materials. So that trucks have time to reach the facility before its closing time on weekdays, loading in Sausalito will begin at 7 a.m. and continue until approximately 10 a.m. The early start time was approved by the City Council on June 22.
In the afternoons, the contractor will transition to a shoreline area of Dunphy Park that requires the removal of existing soil to a depth of approximately two feet. The soil will be replaced with imported clean material.
The city website says “Eleven Engineering will be following all required procedures for protecting its employees and the public.” Work sites have been fenced off to restrict access. To control dust, water will be placed on the soil as it is being dug up and transferred to trucks. The trucks will be covered to prevent any material from escaping.
The Dunphy Park Improvement project, which used to be an old burn dump site, included the reconstruction of an existing park and the installation of a dedicated parking as well as other amenities including a large turf area, Bocce Court, Restroom, Volleyball Court, landscaping, picnic areas and benches. During the construction soft subbase soil material was found under the proposed parking lot location. This material needed to be removed and replaced with an engineered subbase to support the weight of the vehicle parking.
This material was stockpiled on the south side of the park was later found to exceed the state threshold for lead. Additional material from the main turf and some small portions of the shoreline area was also determined to have elevated levels of lead and require removal and replacement with clean material.
On March 30, 2021 the City received a total of eleven bids for the Dunphy Park Soil Stockpile Removal Project. The low bid from Eleven Engineering Inc. in the amount of $745,815 was found to be responsive and responsible.
The renovation of Dunphy Park has a long history. This area of Sausalito was utilized as a burn dump in the early 1930’s to the late 1960’s. The initial design of the Dunphy Park Improvement Project was initiated by the Friends of Dunphy Park more than 10 years ago. RHAA, a local landscape design firm, was hired to develop construction plans for the renovation of Dunphy Park in cooperation with other members of the public.
The City originally solicited and rejected bids, based on the bids exceeding the budget, for the Dunphy Park Improvement Project in October 2017. The project was rebid in April 2018 with a revised project scope that, among other things, included the grading and reuse of existing soils on the site in a manner to provide adequate cover over the remains of the old burn dump. This approach was based on standard testing of the soils and the presumption that areas of contamination were localized.
After the start of construction the soil material located under the area of the proposed parking lot was found to have unsatisfactory compaction characteristics in that it could not sustain the loads of the vehicles from the parking lot. In order to address this situation, City staff instructed the contractor to remove a section of the material under the proposed parking lot and backfill that area with rock rip rap and geotechnical fabric which acts as a bridge and can support the proposed vehicle loads. The unsatisfactory material was moved to the south side of the park and stockpiled with other soil material. This material was later tested and found to contain levels of lead that exceed the state thresholds.
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