A “philosophical change” prompted city administration to add more aesthetic-type work — such as trees and medians — to this year’s cast iron replacement program instead of focusing strictly on installing new pipes.
The initial tenders that city administration received for the program were under budget by $1.8 million, so it crafted a change-order worth $1.4 million that included completing projects within the downtown local area plan (DLAP), explained city manager Jim Puffalt. Meanwhile, city hall has scheduled additional replacement of underground pipes since construction crews continue to find lines that were not in the blueprints.
“We’re pretty excited about this one,” Puffalt added during city council’s June 15 regular meeting.
During the meeting, council voted 5-2 to award the change order to N.I.S Contractors Ltd. for $1,413,061.77, including PST and a 10-per-cent contingency. City hall separated the total into two components: charges of $686,006.60 specific to road rehabilitation, and $727,055.17 for increased water main replacement, DLAP improvements, and associated surface work.
Councillors Brian Swanson and Scott McMann were opposed.
Project additions
City administration is upgrading roads, sidewalks and storm sewer systems on Fairford Street East, High Street West and Third Avenue Northwest, while it is adding asphalt milling, full road overlays and DLAP initiatives, explained Bevan Harlton, director of engineering services.
Specifically, construction crews will install a traffic bulb at the southeast corner of Main and Fairford East and a centre median on High Street West between Second and Third avenues northwest.
Meanwhile, Second Avenue Northwest from Fairford Street to Manitoba Street has been added, with construction crews to upgrade 335 metres of water mains, conduct road and sidewalk rehabilitation, and complete DLAP initiatives.
City administration added Second Avenue Northwest for several reasons, Harlton added. This includes the fact Mosaic Place is shut down; construction and co-ordination efficiencies could be gained; and crews discovered an unexpected connection between water mains at the intersection of High Street West and Second Avenue Northwest.
Council discussion
It was exciting that tenders came in lower than budgeted, since that meant city administration could complete more cast iron work, said Swanson. Yet he was apprehensive since they were focusing less on replacing extra cast iron pipe and more on building unnecessary medians or ripping up sidewalks to plant trees.
“I would have preferred to have had a couple of options to look at (in the report) … but the only option we have is we can reject this change order,” he continued, “when I had mentioned three times in the past few months that if we have low tenders, we should do more cast iron. This does lip service to that.”
A ‘philosophical change’
This change order happened because of what construction crews were finding underground, said Puffalt. Furthermore, there was a pressing need to continue to do work and not have construction crews stand around.
There was also a “philosophical change” within city administration about adding DLAP improvements now since crews were working in these areas and city hall didn’t want to come back to them for another 20 years.
“If we come back in 10 years and rip up (the streets) and put down concrete, that doesn’t make sense,” he added.
There were three items that Coun. Heather Eby thought were extras, including the installation of a traffic bulb, removing sidewalks to plant trees, and installing a centre median. However, she didn’t think any of them were poor options.
Council said early in its term that it wanted a methodical approach with this project since it would cost more to go back to complete extra work, said Mayor Fraser Tolmie. Residents have told him the municipality tears up streets often for problems that work crews could have addressed earlier, such as replacing water lines that property owners initially didn’t want completed.
The next regular council meeting is June 29.
