Charles Repnow/PCT Pipes stand waiting along the northwest corner of the Chalmers Addition in southeast Rugby. The housing development should see more activity at the beginning of next month after a change order was approved by the Rugby City Council.

The city of Rugby has come to an agreement with a contractor regarding a change order for the Chalmers Addition housing development in southeast Rugby.

Work has been slow on the job, in part due to the wet spring. Once Park Construction started the work, it found that some changes would be needed to reinforce the pipes that will run through the development.

“The conditions are considerably different than what was anticipated,” said city council president Arland Geiszler. “The change order is requiring rock and that will be able to stabilize the bed for the piping. They’ve given a strong estimate of what that rock base will be.”

The increased costs are estimated to be around $363,000, a price tag the city and Job Development Authority, partners in the project, weren’t excited to take on.

There was a contingency of around $210,000, or 10 percent of the project, already written in to the budget. But that still left around $150,000 to be covered for the change order.

“That’s why the change order had to be reviewed and scrutinized and approved,” Geiszler said.

Included in the order is a new small lift station on the north end of the development as well as the rock added underneath the pipes. The development will keep all its lots, as an early proposal called for removing some of the lots so that one lift station could handle the entire development.

“The end result will not have a great change on the cost per square foot of the lots,” Geiszler said.

Following some negotiations between Park Construction, city officials and the city’s engineers on the project, an agreement was passed by the finance committee on Sept. 17.

Geiszler said Park Construction, which has been off the job site for much of the summer, will return in early October and plans on completing the infrastructure on the project this fall.

The sidewalks, curb and gutter and streets were originally planned to be built in the spring of 2014 and should remain on schedule.

Earlier this summer, Park was given a one-month extension to complete the job due to wet conditions in the spring, leaving the job deadline at August, 2014.

“I think we’ve stood firm and come to a reasonable agreement,” Geiszler said.