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St. Mary Parish’s sunken Welcome Center could rise from the swamp, providing insurers agree to pay $3.36 million for repairs.
The parish Tourist Commission has agreed to settle all claims against the parties related to the repairs of its $3.8 million, 16,000-square-foot Cajun cabin attraction. However, the structure’s architects and structural and geo-tech engineers must first convince their insurance carriers to pay.
The firm Gary McGoffin, of Durio, McGoffin, Stag and Ackermann of Lafayette, which is representing the commission, recommended the settlement. McGoffin was hired after the nearly-complete tourism building sunk nearly six feet into the swamp in June.
Conceived to be a Welcome Center in the sky, the site, located at the Martin Luther King exit just off an elevated portion of U.S. Highway 90, was set to open July 15.
Workers were putting finishing touches on the interior of the building June 14 as it began to sink. Everyone was able to escape as the building dropped more than five feet into the swamp below.
McGoffin recommended the commission settle, saying, “You cannot litigate and negotiate at the same time.”
“Since that time, all parties to the original design construction have worked together to determine the appropriate solution to the problem,” the attorney said.
Mediation between the parish, Baton Rouge designers Washer Hill Lipscomb Cabanis and Laplace-based Aegis Construction began in September.
Carrie Stansbury, director of the St. Mary Parish Tourist Commission, remains hopeful the facility can be repaired.
“If everyone agrees to our proposal, the repairs could begin in January and we could move in next August, with the appearance and finish according to our original plans,” she said.
Commissioner Kim Walden is hopeful, too, but less optimistic. “Frankly, we still don’t know yet,” she said of any final agreement.
The tourist commission recently hired Expert House Movers to repair the facility.
The company, which has been featured on the Discovery Channel, presented an estimated $3.36 million price tag to raise the Welcome Center.
McGoffin said EHM completed a test pile program earlier this month. Four 4.5 feet steel pilings were hydraulically driven into the concrete deck of the building until each piling reached the sand strata, approximately 100 feet below the ground, he said. The test was conducted at three locations in the building.
The attorney said the pilings were load-tested to a 20- and 25-ton bearing capacities. “That is double the anticipated load on each pile, due to the weight of the facility,” McGoffin said.
McGoffin said the test was terminated when the building itself began lifting from the swamp. “There was no failure of the pile or the sand strata support of the pile,” he said.
EMH is proposing raising the Welcome Center using 228 4.5-foot steel pilings hydraulically driven to the needed depth and load tested to 20 tons. In contrast, the original facility design called for 57 50-foot concrete pilings to be driven to 45 feet, versus to the sand strata.
McGoffin said EMH’s plan calls for each pile would also be filled with concrete grout to eliminate air and water intrusion. “This will provide additional stability and support,” he said.
EMH’s two-phase plan calls for the Welcome Center to be elevated first, at a fixed price of $2.243 million. The second step, repairing the structure in conformance with the architects’ original plans, is expected to cost $1.1 million.
McGoffin said the commission will pay approximately $161,000 out-of-pocket expenses. Other costs, he said, are harder to ascertain. “Additional impacts include adverse publicity, diversion of staff time and the delay in the benefit of increased parish tourism attributable to the Welcome Center.”
The St. Mary Parish Welcome Center is shown – sunken after a structural malfunction. Officials say the center will be able to be lifted and restored thanks to a $3.36 million project.
