Crime & Safety
Cost Overruns, Toxic Soil, Delay Novato Firehouse Construction
Fire Station 64 construction costs are $500,000 over budget.
The construction of a new fire station has been put on hold.
Work on the $8 million Fire Station 64 project can't go forward because of cost overruns, the Marin Independent Journal reports. The $500,000 higher-than-expected construction costs don't include addition costs of cleaning up a patch recently-discovered toxic soil on the site,
"At present the whole project is shut down," Novato Fire Chief Mark Heine told the IJ.
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The lowest bid on the project's construction was $4.4 million – well above the $3.8 million the fire district budgeted, Heine told the IJ.
The fire department will maintain a temporary Fire Station 64 in a trailer on 105 Roblar Drive it rents for $2,000 a month, the IJ reports.
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The temporary station will insure all neighborhoods served by Fire Station 64 continue receiving service until a permanent structure goes up, Heine told the IJ.
Fire district board President Farhad Mansourian attributes the cost overruns to a construction cost spike, the IJ reports. District officials said there is no timetable for resumption of the project.
