North Salt Lake City officials say they are very close to a final remediation plan for the landslide that happened in August, but many questions still remain.
North Salt Lake City Mayor Len Arave says he wanted to have the final remediation plan ready by now, but the complicated nature of the work has delayed its completion by several weeks.
“We’ve tried to push an aggressive schedule the entire time, but it’s a complicated process and we’ll have to see how it goes," he says. "But, we’re pushing and trying hard to get things done as quickly as we can.”
One of the issues still in question is who will pay for the work once a plan is in place. Arave says while city officials still don’t have an answer, negotiations with other stakeholders such as the developer and Kern River Gas are going well.
“I think the posturing is kind of stopping and we’re getting down and trying to figure out solutions right now," he says. "No guarantee that we’ll be able to get it done, but at least the discussions are more fruitful.”
Arave says preliminary cost estimates to complete work at the top of the slide are less than $1 million, but they still don’t have an estimate for what it will cost to address issues at the bottom of the slide. Ultimately, the final total will be decided by a bidding process that Arave hopes will start in early January.