Clear Lake council approves change order for seawall project

CLEAR LAKE — The Clear Lake City Council last night approved a change order for the seawall restoration project. TNT Tuckpointing & Building Restoration of Stockton in eastern Iowa started work on the project last week, making repairs uch as chipped stones and mortar to the seawall, which was constructed in 1936.

City Administrator Scott Flory told the council that 100% replacement of the mortar was not originally proposed but is now recommended.  “When the plans were drafted for this project, the historic preservation architect didn’t show going to 100% restoration in some areas. Some areas were only like 50% mortar replacement. A number of the areas of the wall had the original 1936 mortar, it was still in good shape relatively speaking, so that wasn’t called out for it to be replaced. Josh Smyser with TNT had gotten with us and made a proposal on just identifying the efficiencies to moving to 100% on the mortar replacement.”

Flory says doing 100% replacement of the mortar now fully addresses repairs in the long-term for the seawall.  “I think it gives us an opportunity to do some more in-depth, full patchwork here, mortaring, tuckpointing on the wall than what we had anticipated. It seems like a good opportunity for us at a good price.”

The council approved a change order that increases the price of the project by $39,000 to a total of $225,930, which is still less than the original estimated cost of the project of $250,000. TNT hopes to have the project completed around Memorial Day.