City of Powell River Council has awarded a contract for its expanded 2021 paving program.
At a special city council meeting on September 9, councillors voted to award the contract to Okanagan Aggregates in the amount of $1,843,343.30 plus GST. The city had budgeted $2 million for the paving program.
Councillor George Doubt said council has heard a lot from residents of the city about the need for improvements and the quality of pavement around the community.
“This year’s paving budget and next year’s paving budget and some COVID-19 funds have been combined to do some much-needed repairs and upgrading to roads,” said Doubt. “I support it completely.”
Councillor Jim Palm said he was happy to see the tenders that came in were very competitive, along with a local tender that was just outbid by Okanagan Aggregates.
“I’m very happy to see the streets that we have previously listed will be repaired,” said Palm. “It goes a long way to filling in a lot of our roads in need of repair. I’m very happy to see this going forward.”
According to a staff report, on August 27, the city received two compliant bids for the 2021 pavement program. The original bid from Okanagan Aggregates came in at $1,951,303.30 plus GST, and a competing bid from BA Blacktop came in at $2,084,839.70 plus GST.
The staff reported that given the amount of the lowest bid is exceptionally close to the available budget of $2 million, and to ensure the city does not go over budget, the engineering department proposed to remove one section of road from the list. The removal of Sycamore Street at a value of $107,960 plus GST would bring the total contract to the $1.8 million figure that council accepted, the report stated. If construction proceeds as anticipated, with no cost overruns, the section of Sycamore Street can be added back into the contract prior to completion of the 2021 pavement program, according to the report.
The paving program is set to commence as soon as possible, according to chief administrative officer Russell Brewer.
The original list of streets to be upgraded includes Saskatchewan Avenue, where there are also water mains to be replaced, Skeena Street in Wildwood, which is on a bus route, and Richmond Street, which also includes a storm main to be upgraded.
The following seven roads that were originally identified to be repaired and upgraded are all on bus routes: Hawthorn Street, Quadra Avenue, Oliver Street, Church Street, Allen Avenue, Tatlow Street and Sycamore Street.
In order to carry out the expanded 2021 paving program, the city is combining the $600,000 paving budgets from 2021 and 2022 and is adding $800,000 from the COVID-10 safe restart reserve fund. There will be no paving program in the city in 2022.
