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LVCVA approves $1.6M for more work on former Riviera site

The Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority on Tuesday unanimously approved a $1.6 million increase to its contract with the company preparing the former Riviera site for parking and outdoor exhibits.

The board of directors voted 14-0 to increase its contract with W.A. Richardson Builders to $44.6 million because of the added costs of removing 23 times more contaminated soil from the site than initially estimated.

Richardson officials discovered contaminated soil around four underground diesel fuel storage tanks on the north side of the Riviera site after the first of several buildings on the resort campus was demolished.

The contractor in March 2015 provided soil samples by boring into the ground around the tanks and a report commissioned by the Nevada Division of Environmental Protection estimated that 430 tons of contaminated soil would have to be removed.

It turned out that 9,980 tons of soil was contaminated and workers excavated and removed the soil in August to keep the project on schedule.

The LVCVA’s property manager for the site will now apply to have the added costs reimbursed by the Nevada State Petroleum Cleanup Fund. There’s no assurance the costs will be reimbursed and the LVCVA won’t know for 12 to 18 months whether the fund’s administrators will approve the request.

In the meantime, the additional $1.6 million will come from an agency contingency fund and none of the LVCVA’s other programs will be affected.

Terry Miller, a principal with California-based Cordell Corp., the LVCVA’s contracted property manager, told board members there could be more contaminated soil underground, particularly beneath Riviera Boulevard on the northern edge of the campus. The additional contamination would only be addressed if the area is excavated for some future project.

For now, the goal is to turn the grounds into an outdoor exhibit space that could also be used as a parking lot.

While the goal has been to get the space ready for the ConExpo-Con/Ag construction equipment show in March, Miller indicated the space could provide parking for January’s CES trade show.

Miller said paving for the parking lot was completed last week and the project is estimated at 94 percent complete through 68 percent of the timeline.

Miller said since the 1989 establishment of the Petroleum Clean-up Fund — funded with a 0.75-cent portion of state sales tax revenue — about $7 million to $9 million a year has been paid out on soil contamination remediation costs from old fuel tanks. Since 1989, about 1,500 applications have been received with 126 claims rejected.

Miller said while there are no assurances that the LVCVA would be reimbursed, the board had to approve payment to Richardson to start the reimbursement process.

The fund can pay up to $1 million in remediation per fuel tank.

LVCVA President and CEO Rossi Ralenkotter said because the acquisition of the Riviera and the demolition contract with Richardson had already been approved, officials said there was no need to bring up the added cost of the contract when the financing of a $1.4 billion Las Vegas Convention Center expansion was debated in a special session of the Nevada Legislature. The Riviera site eventually will be used for the construction of a new Convention Center exhibition hall.

In other business Tuesday, the board unanimously approved:

—A two-year contract for research surveys and reports for $759,100 with San Francisco-based GLS Research.

—An expenditure of $170,000 for expenses associated with exhibiting at the International Tourism Bourse in Berlin, Germany, in March.

—An expenditure of $269,000 for expenses associated with the inaugural flight of Hainan Airlines from Beijing to Las Vegas on Dec. 2.

—An HMO contract of $1.8 million with Health Plan of Nevada for the 2017 calendar year.

Contact Richard N. Velotta at rvelotta@reviewjournal.com or 702-477-3893. Follow @RickVelotta on Twitter.

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