PORT OF SEATTLE 
MEMORANDUM 
COMMISSION AGENDA                   Item No.        5b 
Date of Meeting       May 18, 2010 
DATE:      May 6, 2010 
TO:         Tay Yoshitani, Chief Executive Officer 
FROM:     Ralph Graves, Managing Director, Capital Development Division 
SUBJECT:   Change Order No. 015 for the East Marginal Way Grade Separation Project
Contract MC-0316219 
AMOUNT OF THIS REQUEST: $430,000.00
SOURCE OF FUNDS: Project Construction Contingency 

ACTION REQUESTED:
Requests authorization for the Chief Executive Officer to issue Change Order No. 015 for the
East Marginal Way Grade Separation Project for the Not to Exceed amount of $430,000.00. 
SYNOPSIS:
The contract includes an allowance of $100,000 for soil disposed, but the total cost of disposing
both highly contaminated soil and geotechnically unsuitable low-level contaminated soil is now
expected to exceed this amount. A change order is required to compensate the contractor for the
actual costs incurred for contaminated soils removal and disposal in excess of the $100,000
allowance. Because the final magnitude of the change will not be known until all of the
excavation is completed, this change order will be issued for a Not to Exceed amount of
$430,000 which covers the costs to date and our estimate for the disposal cost for any remaining
excavations.
Environmental regulations allow the re-use on-site of low-level contaminated soil, but
engineering unsuitability and lack of storage space have led to the excess. Port s taff continues to
investigate other alternatives to off-site soil disposal in an effort to mitigate further costs and
keeping with the Port's commitment to sustainability of resources. 
The funds to pay for this change order are part of the project construction contingency funds that
were included in previously approved authorizations of $50,700,000.  No additional project
funds are being requested as a result of this change order.

COMMISSION AGENDA 
T. Yoshitani, Chief Executive Officer 
May 6, 2010 
Page 2 of 4 

BACKGROUND:
This project is for the construction of a new vehicular overpass structure to separate vehicular
traffic from rail traffic at the intersection of lower Spokane Street and East Marginal Way. The
project includes: 
Minor improvements at the existing street connections 
Realignment of a portion of Spokane Street surface street to pass under the new overpass 
Installation of an earthquake drain system under the retained fill 
Utility relocation and construction of a water quality vault 

The contract included Bid Item 26 with a $100,000 allowance originally intended to provide
payment for highly contaminated soil requiring disposal. However, in addition to some highly
contaminated soils, the excavation has also uncovered soils with low-levels of contamination
which were found to be geotechnically unsuitable for use within the project. The contract plans
do not include any direction as to how this type of low-level contaminated soil should be
addressed. A large amount of the excavated soil fell into this category and was slated for off-site 
disposal.
Port staff directed the contractor to stockpile this material in order to mitigate the amount of soil
requiring removal from the jobsite while investigating other options for reuse of the soil.
Through coordination with the contractor, environmental and geotechnical agents, the City of
Seattle, and the Designer of Record, an agreement has been reached regarding areas where a
large amount of the remaining soil can be reincorporated into the site. The remaining soil has
been made available to other Port properties, but no other long-term storage location or use was 
identified within the Port. The amount of project space available for stockpiling is insufficient to
hold all of the excavated soil nor is it possible to reincorporate all of the excavated soil into the
project so the contractor was directed to proceed with off-site disposal for a portion of the least
desirable low-level contaminated soils as the stockpiles were beginning to infringe upon the
project work areas. 

CHANGE ORDER DESCRIPTION AND JUSTIFICATION: 
The following information relates to the pending change order scope and cost: 
Change Order No. 015 
Scope of work: Provides contractual mechanism to compensate the contractor for
contaminated soil removal and disposal in excess of the $100,000 allowance in the
contract under Bid Item 26. Amount is based on actual costs incurred to date plus an

COMMISSION AGENDA 
T. Yoshitani, Chief Executive Officer 
May 6, 2010 
Page 3 of 4 

estimated 5% of the remaining excavated soils being contaminated at a level requiring
off-site disposal. The contractor shall proceed for a total amount Not to Exceed 
$430,000.00. 
A. Contaminated Soil Removal and Disposal                         $530,000.00 
B. Bid Item 26 allowance                                           ($100,000.00) 
Not to Exceed Change Order Amount:                                 $430,000.00 
Justification: Specification 2-15.3(C).3.01A identifies "shaft excavations, trench
excavations, drainage vault excavations, and structural earth wall excavations, among
others," to be areas of "Potential, Suspected, or Confirmed Contaminated Soil Areas."
This specification corresponds to contaminated areas identified in pre-construction
environmental reports. The contract provided a common bid allowance of $100,000 as
an estimate to be included in the Bid Package for this force account work (BI 26). Port
staff has worked with the contractor to stockpile and re-use as much of the low-level
contaminated soils on site as possible. This change addresses the payment for soils with
low-level contamination that was geotechnically unsuitable for re-use on site and could
not be stockpiled due to space limitations in excess of the $100,000 allowance within Bid
Item 26. 
Consequences of not proceeding: The Port has coordinated with the contractor to
reincorporate as much of the soil as possible onsite, however there is not enough space
left on site to stockpile additional low-level contaminated soils. Without space to
stockpile these soils, excavations would have to be stopped and the project would be
delayed until other stockpile areas could be found resulting in time and cost escalation to
the project. The estimated disposal costs associated with not reincorporating any of this
soil into the project is approximately $1.4M. 
FINANCIAL ANALYSIS: 
The funds to pay for this change order are part of the project construction contingency funds that
were included in previously approved authorizations of $50,700,000.  No additional project
funds are being requested as a result of this change order. 
CONTRACT INFORMATION:   The following information relates to the contract and
competitive award: 
Contract award date:                                        October 23, 2009 
Original period of performance:        October 23, 2009  September 2, 2011 
Previous contract extensions:                                           0 Days 
Contract extension this change order:                                   0 Days

COMMISSION AGENDA 
T. Yoshitani, Chief Executive Officer 
May 6, 2010 
Page 4 of 4 

Current Contract Completion Date:                        September 2, 2011 
Original contract amount:                                    $18,250,482.70 
Previous Change Orders Executed:                              -$48,087.97 
Current contract amount                                     $18,202,394.73 
This request, Change Order No. 015                             $430,000.00 
Revised contract amount:                                   $18,632,394.73