Test results on Alna’s sand and salt shed show that three of five concrete cores do not meet compressive strength standards.
Contractor Ronnie Hopkins, of Damariscotta, who was awarded the contract ($20,087) to shore up the deteriorating walls of the town’s steel Quonset hut structure, completed half the job, the west wall foundation. He said afterward he stands by his work.
As for further action on the issue, board of selectmen chair Billie Willard, who did not rule out legal action, said, “We don’t know what we’re going to do about it.” The board will be talking with Maine Municipal Association to pursue options, said Selectman Tom Smith.
Terracon Consultants, of Scarborough, was hired to conduct tests following the board’s early September stop-work order. The project was halted because of complaints about the quality of Hopkins’ work, especially regarding crumbling concrete on the section he completed.
In late September, Terracon performed concrete coring at nine locations in the wall. One sample broke within the drill bit. A company letter dated Nov. 23 states that, of the core locations, two cores “were found to be inadequate for testing due to rebar in the specimen or voids within the concrete.” Of the other seven cores, five were prepared for testing and only two met the standard for supporting at least 3000 pounds per square inch, as intended.
Willard said that Hopkins, in undertaking the job last summer, “proceeded to do everything different from what he said he would do. A number of knowledgeable people in town went down to check,” she said.
One criticism was that the concrete had sat too long in the cement mixer during hot weather. “You get less strength the longer it sits,” Willard commented.
Contractor Barry Miete, who was the only other bidder, completed the east foundation wall early last month “and the work is wonderful,” said Willard. “The concrete is not crumbling.”
Hopkins said this week his stormy relationship with Alna started with the board’s misunderstanding that his estimate was a contract. “Nothing was signed,” he said.
Beyond that, he admitted he did use “hard language” against Willard, but that was because “she came down to the site every day.” Furthermore, the project began in a spell of hot weather in August. “When the temperature got to 115 degrees inside the shed,” conditions Hopkins compared to an oven, “I hauled my guys out at 11 a.m. Nobody could catch their breath.”
Hopkins stopped work because it was extremely hot, he said, but he intended to return to finish the job.
While the heat impeded the project, Hopkins said he doesn’t believe there was anything wrong with the concrete, which he emphasized he did not mix and which was supplied by Ferraiolo Corp. “I’ve been in cement work for 37 years.” He did, however, advise the cement workers “to slow the concrete down. When it gets hot, cement gets hard to shovel.”
Hopkins also said mistakes can happen and that’s why testing takes place.
Part of the consultants’ report to the board states, “placement procedures and curing methods were not provided to Terracon for this report. Terracon field personnel were not on-site during the time of concrete placement.” The statement alludes to a common industry practice of having a quality control inspector present to raise a red flag if standards aren’t being met.
Terracon officials reached for comment declined to do so.
Hopkins said he wanted Wayne Brewer, who works on state projects and has tested Ferraiolo concrete on state jobs, to test the concrete at the Alna shed, and he himself wanted to be present when the core tests were done. The board of selectmen engaged the Scarborough firm and Hopkins said he wasn’t notified.
Hopkins said the so-called holes in the concrete are called “rat holes” or “popcorn holes.”
They are just “spots” that can be repaired by filling with grout, he said. “Everybody’s poured a foundation that’s a little ratty. I’ll guarantee you it’ll never leak. People who don’t know what they’re talking about worry about (such holes).”
The town paid Hopkins $10,000 when he started the project.
At the selectmen’s meeting Monday evening, board member David Seigars said Miete would probably wait to finish foundation repairs until after “the matter is settled.”
Willard said the building is “packed full of sand and salt now. Fortunately it didn’t fall down.”
