City of Powell River has approved another purchase for the consolidated wastewater treatment plant.
At the November 5 council meeting, the city awarded a contract to Caribou Mountain Construction in the amount of $2,071,046.20, plus GST, for the treated effluent outfall.
Manager of engineering services Nagi Rizk said he was asking for council’s support to award to the lowest bidder to build the outfall, which will extend from the plant to offshore. Rizk said the outfall was about 800 metres long, using 900-millimetre HDPE pipe, to discharge treated effluent. The pipe will extend out about 650 metres into the ocean along the floor and the end of the pipe will be submerged in about 50 metres of water, according to Rizk.
He said there will be some work onshore as well and it needs to be done while the fisheries window is open.
“We are hoping to get them (the contractors) onsite within two weeks,” said Rizk.
He said in three weeks, the city will be receiving the pipe it has purchased for the outfall from the manufacturer. He said it was expected to be shipped in two weeks.
Mayor Dave Formosa said he knows the pipe was purchased by the city to speed up the process. He was wondering if the city was saving money by doing it this way, rather than having the contractor purchase it and potentially charge a commission.
“The more we can buy and provide, the more we save,” said Formosa.
Rizk said that is correct.
“We also want to make sure that the specifications are right,” said Rizk. “If we put it out for the contractors to bid, we might not get exactly what we want.”
Councillor George Doubt said this is going to be one of the environmentally sensitive parts of the project overseen by the oversight contract the city issued earlier this year.
Rizk said the outfall work, both onshore and offshore, is going to be overseen by the consultant and the contractor for the project, so there will be two oversights.
Councillor Cindy Elliott asked how confident Rizk is that the contractors will do the job within the budget they have proposed.
“Is there some risk, in your opinion, that there would be costs outside of what’s in the contract?” asked Elliott.
Rizk said he was comfortable regarding what has been discussed with the contractor. He said there has been written confirmation that they understand what the city wants and can meet that schedule.
Formosa said this contractor is coming from Alberta and the company is 100 per cent first nation-owned. Formosa said staff is satisfied with interviews they’ve had with the contractor and there is testimonial that the contractors are good workers.
“If the manager tells me he is satisfied, then I’m satisfied,” said Formosa.
Councillor Jim Palm said this means the actual first construction of part of the new facility is being undertaken and it has been a long time coming.
“We’ve ordered equipment and we’ve done some grubbing of the area, but this is going to be the first boots on the ground construction going on, and it’s a monumental achievement,” said Palm.
He said he wanted to thank staff, and that it has not been easy going through all of the red tape required, especially when dealing with the Fisheries and Oceans Canada, which has threatened to fine the city heavily unless it moves forward with this build.
Council voted unanimously in favour of the contract.
