Mountain View County should meet with Alberta government officials and try to renegotiate a bigger provincial share in the delayed Big Prairie Bridge reconstruction project, Reeve Paddy Munro said at last Wednesday's policies and priorities committee.ìThere's gotta be more discussion with the province,î Munro said. ìI'm thinking 80-20. They should be looking at (paying) 80 per cent.îThe province had agreed to pay 50 per cent of the estimated $1.6-million cost, but in July the lowest bid came in at $2.8 million. Council voted to put the project on hold for one year and re-tender it for a fall 2012 completion date. Short timelines due to delays obtaining permits limited the number of bids received and likely drove up costs, a consulting engineer advised the county.That advice, however, was brought into question at a recent meeting between county officials, the consulting engineer and the low-bid firm, Carmacks Enterprises Ltd.ìThe engineer still stands by his estimate and the contractor still stands by his tender,î infrastructure manager Ryan Morrison said last week.Munro said one of the issues is the specifications for the new bridge, which include stainless steel rebar and high-strength concrete that costs $1,800 per cubic metre.ìThe government has changed the specs,î Munro said. ìBecause the bridge is expected to last 100 years, we're expected to come up with the money.îDiv. 7 Coun. Al Kemmere, who along with Div. 2 Coun. Trish McKean was also present at the meeting, said it appeared that the cost will be higher than the original estimate ñ ìbut we may be able to circumvent that by being first in the bid pile instead of last,î he added.ìSome of the new specs drove the costs up, but they were included with the engineer's report,î Kemmere said.Administration will obtain an updated estimate on the project before bringing it forward as part of the 2012 budget process.
