(File photo/battlefordsNOW Staff)

By Angela Brown

Update on project

NB Sanitary Sewer Trunk upgrade engineering costs see increase

Jun 14, 2022 | 3:41 PM

The City of North Battleford’s Primary Sanitary Sewer Trunk upgrade project will be dealing with more increased costs.

Council heard at this week’s meeting engineering services are estimated to run up to $90,000 more than anticipated due to several factors.

Project engineering firm AECOM Canada Ltd. was hired to do the engineering work for the sanitary force main sewer system project and the sewage pumping station.

AECOM indicated the contractors’ schedules and productivity were not in line during the 2021 construction period, as Hamm Construction started in the spring of 2021 while the Con-Tech construction team did not mobilize until the fall of that year, which affected costs. As well, both firms’ crews were impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic, which resulted in additional engineering costs.

The majority of council approved a resolution to amend the contract with AECOM to reflect the increase, with councillors Bill Ironstand and Kelli Hawtin opposed. AECOM will be authorized to increase their engineering service contract price up to $90,000. Including PST, the added cost will be up to $95,400 plus GST, for a total cost of up to $1,248,502 for AECOM’s services.

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Ironstand said the scope of the work is already outlined in the original contract, so was not in support of the increase.

Sean Bayer of KGS Group, the project managers, said the extra cost is reasonable given last year’s circumstances.

In his report, city director of Operations, Stewart Schafer, said AECOM believes the total overall construction budget will actually be under budget by $104,600. It was noted that the project has a $200,000 contingency that has not been used.

Coun. Kent Lindgren said the integrity of the engineering services ensures “the safety and quality of the work, and safeguards the city, and our citizens in case something should arise in the future” for the large-scale project, so supported covering the contract increase.

“This addition out of the whole budget of the project is .06 per cent,” he said. “That’s an amount I am willing to spend in this case. We’re within that budget. It’s not even additional. It’s already being budgeted for.”

Project update

Also during the meeting, Bayer gave an update on the overall project work.

“The project as a whole is going well,” he said.

Bayer said the force main work is about 90 to 93 per cent complete, while the pumping station is “a little bit behind” at between 60 to 65 per cent complete.

He said the intention of the project is to have everything completed around the October timeline.

Deputy Mayor Len Taylor said it’s good to see the work proceeding according to plans.

–

Angela.Brown@pattisonmedia.com

On Twitter: @battlefordsnow