CLEVELAND, Tenn. - Cleveland City Council members today will be asked to approve a nearly $65,000 change order related to the ongoing project to connect Harriman Road to APD 40.

If approved, the $64,892 change order -- the seventh so far -- will bring the project cost up to about $3 million. That's $542,865 above the original $2.5 million contract agreement with Steve Williams Construction.

The change order is related to increased costs for installing an underground drainage system under the roadway and required rock excavation, according to an email that construction engineering inspector Eric McElroy sent to Cleveland officials.

"This work required additional blasting on the slopes, tedious equipment operations and precise excavation of ... material," said the supplemental agreement submitted by Steve Williams Construction. "Since the slopes were already completed, the additional excavation was increasingly more difficult and riskier than the original."

The expected overrun on the project was estimated to be about $400,000, Assistant City Manager Melinda Carroll told the council in March. But she said overages on the Harriman Road connection to the south side of APD-40 should be offset by lower costs for its counterpart on the north side of APD-40.

Part of the overrun was from a change order last year to lessen the slope of the road. That would make it easier for commercial traffic to use Harriman Road to access an industrial park to be developed by Cleveland, Bradley County and Cleveland Utilities.

Local residents have expressed concerns over the project, but they have mostly been related to its environmental impact upon near-pristine Brymer Creek.

One is from nearby resident Steve Campbell, who said he lives less than 20 feet from Spring Branch, which feeds into Brymer Creek.

In August 2012 and July 2013, Campbell posted videos to YouTube showing a small waterway polluting a larger one with a muddy flow. He said the videos show Spring Branch and Brymer Creek.

On July 17, the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation issued a notice of violation for the project, stating that erosion control problems noted in a June 6 inspection had not been completely corrected by July 8.

Those corrections, which included an updated stormwater pollution prevention plan, were due at the end of July. An extension has been granted until Aug. 16, said TDEC spokeswoman Shannon Ashford, as some corrective actions would require a change order.

McElroy and a representative from Steve Williams Construction are scheduled to appear before the Cleveland City Council during its 1 p.m. work session at the Cleveland Municipal Building today.

Paul Leach is based in Cleveland. Email him at paul.leach.press@gmail.com.