The tender for Wallaceburg’s walking bridge was approved on Monday night, but not before a discussion took place about the project’s cost.
McLean Taylor Construction Ltd. was awarded the project with their winning bid of $540,419.07.
“This is a project that is very long overdue and has taken a very treacherous journey to get here,” said Wallaceburg Coun. Jeff Wesley. “But one nonetheless that is very important to the community of Wallaceburg.”
When looking at the various project cost numbers in the staff report, Chatham Coun. Doug Sulman said he was confused.
“The budget was $500,000, the report says… the McLean Taylor tender was $540,419 which is just a little over six per cent of the projected cost and above the budget,” Sulman said. “Then there is this other one, which says $658,813.65 is the total project cost.”
Sulman added: “When this was first discussed, it has been a long story, it was way too expensive and there was a motion brought that we can do it cheaper. I’m just trying to reconcile where all these numbers are going.”
Thomas Kelly, general manager of infrastructure and engineering, said it is difficult to project an exact dollar amount and budget for these types of projects.
“During the budget session I talked about the fact there is a couple of estimates we use,” Kelly said. “First there is our initial estimate, which is at the beginning of the program prior to any design and that was the $500,000.”
Kelly added: “The second phase of this is the detailed design, that was completed, the cost of construction was the $540,000. The third item is the $600,000 figure, which is the fully comprehensive cost. This includes engineering and includes contingency.”
Kelly said there is an “assumption that we always get it right out of the gate” when it comes to project estimates.
“We do our best,” Kelly said. “I know council’s perception is that we estimate on the high side, but we don’t do that. We try to give the best figure out of the gate, this is one that we missed by $150,000.”
Kelly said the the L.O. Stonehouse Memorial Walk Bridge is a “unique structure in our inventory.
“We tried to be extremely creative. If you look at the original report, we had one proposal that was $1.2 million. We took that $1.2 million and we tried very hard to find creative ways, and we figured out a way to stay out of the water. That is what reduces significantly. It was the uniqueness of the overall structure and the overall design… we don’t do these type of structures everyday.”
Kelly added: “Throughout the course of the design we discovered things and you can only do that when you start digging down and doing material testing. Just to caution council, some of those estimates are early estimates and until we get into the final design you are always going to have that type of variability.”
Wesley said there are still possible ways moving forward for the total project cost to go down.
“$50,000 of that is contingency, that is not guaranteed to be spent,” he said. “That is there in case anything unforeseen comes up, if there isn’t you can take $50,00 right off the top.”
Wesley said about $650,000 was earmarked towards the bridge back in 2008/2009.
“I think his department has done a heck of a job seven years later and we’re not even over the cost that was set aside back then,” he said. “We also have a set of volunteers… there was offers of cement and paint and supplies.”
Wesley said a meeting with the contractor is set to take place, to see if those donations of materials and volunteers will lower the project cost.
“We’re looking at reducing the cost and not increasing their profit margin,” he said. “If we can say, for example, if you can pre-fabricate the span and we’ve got volunteers and we’ve got the paint and all the volunteers and the supplies donated and we paint that new span, what will he take off the price. That will go to the bottom line in terms of savings.”
Wesley said there are other ways to compliment the project as well.
“The BIA has come to the table, they’ve applied for some grants in order to assist with this as well.”
Work is set to begin on the project after April 6 and wrap-up by June 26.
