LOCATION: Maricopa County

CLIENT: City of Phoenix and Mesa under the Valley Metro Rail

CIVIL ENGINEER:

YEAR(S): 2003-current

DESCRIPTION: Valley Metro Rail is a non-profit, public corporation overseeing the design, construction and operation of the light rail starter segment, as well as extensions to the project. The four cities currently participating in the light rail system are Phoenix, Tempe, Mesa, and Glendale.

SCOPE OF SERVICES:

Phoenix

GEC was retained by the City of Phoenix to conduct numerous Phase I Environmental Site Assessments on properties they were obtaining for future development in connection with the Light Rail Transit Project (LRTP).  A site at Central and Camelback was developed with service stations that had two generations of underground storage tanks (USTs), a car wash with USTs, and a dry cleaning facility.  These facilities operated on the site since the 1960s to the present.  Releases from the USTs had occurred in the past.  GEC performed a comprehensive Phase II exploration of the site to assist the City of Phoenix in determining if these former facilities caused contamination at the site that may affect future LRTP workers or users.  The Phase II work included drilling numerous test borings to obtain soil and soil/gas samples of the surface and subsurface soils, the installation of several ground monitoring well, the installation of two nested soil vapor extraction wells, abandonment of several existing groundwater monitoring wells, several rounds of sampling and testing of groundwater, several rounds of sampling and testing of soil/gas from the vapor extraction well, and disposal of investigative derived wastes.  A comprehensive report was prepared and submitted to the City of Phoenix describing the results of all of this work.

Mesa

The City of Mesa was acquiring additional right-of-way area for the installation of a light rail transportation system along a major City of Mesa thoroughfare.  GEC was hired by the City of Mesa to perform Phase I Environmental Site Assessments, additional right-of-way areas to be procured from 39 different parcels that included apartment complexes, automotive repair facilities, shopping centers and restaurants.  GEC's reconnaissance of these 39 parcels did identify potential recognized environmental conditions that had the potential to impact the development of the additional right-of-way areas.  After a thorough evaluation of each parcel and historical records related to each parcel, GEC concluded that recognized environmental conditions existed at only one of the 39 parcels, a former gasoline station, which may impact development of the additional right-of-way area.  GEC did not recommend additional investigation of the remaining 38 parcels.  The City of Mesa contracted with GEC to perform Phase II investigation activities at the former gasoline station and automotive repair facility.  The results of GEC's Phase II investigation indicated additional investigation or remediation of this parcel was not required, and the City of Mesa could proceed with the purchase and redevelopment of this parcel.