North Battleford council has awarded the tender for another contract in the massive sanitary sewer trunk main project.
At their council meeting Tuesday, council awarded the contract for a sewage force pumping station to Con-Tech General Contractors for $6,405,493 including PST but excluding GST.
Con-Tech were the lowest of five bidders for that portion of the contract. Their original bid was higher, at $6,495,362.
Sean Bayer of KGS Group noted to council that costs savings of $85,000 were found, which included the removal of items such as a ventilation system in the wet well, alternative concrete sealant, changes to the metal snow fence and modification of the snow fence.
Bayer acknowledged in his presentation they had been targeting a higher cost savings of $100,000, but “those are the savings,” he said.
Bayer also spoke about the removal/decommissioning of the sewage treatment plant. Upon further review, consideration of this cost was recommended and it comes to $700,000. He cited the long-term risks of delay and the benefit of addressing it now rather than down the road.
The final price tag for this portion of the contract was considerably higher than original estimates of $3.8 million prior to tender. That prompted grumbling from council members about the costs of the trunk main project, already running well above its original $13.6 million budget to more than $16 million.
The project was funded with the federal, provincial and municipal governments committing one-thirds ‑ $4.5 million each. But the city is on the hook for the overage, bringing their portion of the project up to roughly $7 to $7.5 million.
Mayor David Gillan wanted to know where the $7.5 million was going to come from, saying “it was quite substantial.”
City Manager Randy Patrick said they did not have the answer that night, but would have it soon.
“There is going to be a rate impact, there always was,” said Patrick. “We need to have it for our customers to understand what to expect what’s going to happen on rates.”
There will also be borrowing needed for the project.
Councillor Greg Lightfoot pointed to the fact that construction costs “have gone up substantially in the past 12 months due to COVID [-19].”
“There does not seem to be any light at the end of the tunnel for that, due to the fact there is shortages.”
He also pointed to the cost of pipe going up, and noted they were able to save money on the pipe portion of the contract because the contractor, Hamm Construction, had pipe on supply already.
“Unfortunately, sometimes we have to bite the bullet and do it. I’m not happy with the overages either, but unfortunately I don’t think they’re in our control,” said Lightfoot.
