Hundreds of thousands of dollars are being saved by the town with its contractor approval for the million-dollar reconstruction and replacement of the northeast trunk main sanitary sewer line.
Just over $2.1 million was budgeted by the town for the upgrading of the 40-year-old line – the municipality's oldest of three main sanitary sewer mains. But when 11 tender bids were received, all were hundreds of thousands of dollars below the town's initial estimated cost.
“It's a sign of the times, or else we're not doing a good job at estimating, which I don't think is the case,” said Coun. Mark Kemball at council's regular meeting on Feb. 22.
Since last year, council members, especially Spiller, have said the current depressed economy presented beneficial cost savings opportunities for major infrastructure projects because of expected fierce competition among contractors. The million-dollar northeast trunk main project, in particular, has been a priority for the town since 2013 when it adopted a Master Servicing Concept to look into long-term infrastructure improvements to accommodate future growth, particularly in the northeast part of town.
“The lowest tender came in at $1.15 million, which is an $850,000 savings for the town. Even if we took the highest tender we were still under. It is a great time to be doing it,” said Mayor Brian Spiller, noting 19 different companies picked up the tender package from the town when normally there are just five or six. “These are projects that we had tagged to do in the future and because of the Build Canada fund and the $9 million grant we got, we are able to do projects right now in a slow economic time and reap the benefits of aggressive tendering.”
An administration report presented to council stated the 11 received bids ranged from Urban Dirtworks' $1.154 million to a high of almost $1.8 million. Council, which officially approved the go-ahead for the project at its Jan. 11 regular meeting, unanimously approved the bid from Urban Dirtworks. It was noted by administration that the Sylvan Lake company had a positive track record with the town from a lane infrastructure project it did last year.
Spiller said the $850,000 savings from Urban Dirtworks' successful bid could go towards another infrastructure project that was part of the town's original Build Canada application to remediate the sewer plant and lagoons.
“We will keep that and keep sending out tenders because in two years when we do the last stage we might have something that is over a million (dollars) and we need that extra money. When it is all over we will do our reporting to both levels of government and they will see that we spent it all on that project,” said Spiller, adding any money not spent must be sent back to the funding governments.
The funding sources for the project are a combination of the provincial Municipal Sustainability Initiative (MSI) funds, the Federal Gas Tax Fund, and from the $9 million Build Canada grant, a joint federal and provincial program, that was approval last year.
With council's Feb. 22 contract approval, the reconstruction of 1,400 metres of the northeast trunk main is expected to begin on May 1 and be completed by July 31.
Most of the reconstruction work will be placed close to the existing main line and follow the Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR) line from the intersection of 53 and 48 streets to the north end of the town yard. Council was told the precise alignment through CPR lands in the north end is subject to approval from the rail company.
The overall project will also include a 90-metre extension of a forcemain in the town yard to connect to the Woodlands area, and repairs to the sanitary main at the intersection of 56 Street and 50 Avenue.
Coun. Mark Kemball
"It's a sign of the times, or else we're not doing a good job at estimating, which I don't think is the case."
