City of Powell River Council will be voting on a $61 million proposal for the general contract to build the consolidated wastewater treatment plant in Townsite. The vote will be held at the April 15 city council meeting.
At the April 13 committee of the whole meeting, councillors heard a presentation from manager of engineering services Nagi Rizk, who outlined that of three shortlisted construction companies, Graham Infrastructure LP had been selected. Graham Infrastructure recently built the wastewater treatment plant serving the Victoria area.
Rizk said construction of the wastewater treatment plant is long overdue. He said 1998 was the beginning of the liquid waste management plan process, leading up to his recommendation on a general contractor in 2021.
“That’s a long haul; it’s a sense of accomplishment that is almost overwhelming.” said Rizk. “As you are well aware, it was in 2019 we received the grant to construct the wastewater treatment plant through the green infrastructure program.”
Rizk said seven general contractors were pre-qualified for the project and following the process of reviewing proposals, three were selected for shortlisting. He said bidders had to submit five references and the city contacted references to get testimonials on the bidders.
“With a project of this magnitude, we don’t take any steps lightly,” said Rizk.
Of the three contractors shortlisted, Graham was the lowest of the bidders. Rizk said the Victoria-region wastewater plant project was about 10 times the size of Powell River’s.
City pleased with subcontractors
One matter discussed in the contract process was subcontracting and Rizk said the city is pleased with names that have been submitted as Graham’s subcontractors. He said almost all of the companies that worked with Graham in Victoria will be working with the company in Powell River. He said some of the contractors worked with the city’s project consultant and come highly recommended.
Rizk said Graham’s bid was $1.9 million below an April 2020 cost estimate.
“We are comfortable they can provide this job on time and on budget,” said Rizk.
Councillor George Doubt said the bids looked good and were along the lines of what the city hoped to see.
Rizk said completion of this project, if all goes well, will be by the first quarter of 2023. He said a significant portion of construction will be carried out in the current fiscal year and he expects an expenditure of about $50 million in that time frame.
Doubt asked when the city can expect to see people with tool belts arriving and work starting.
Rizk said with the contract, a certain amount of paperwork is expected once the award has been given. He said he expects shovels in the ground in mid-May if council immediately approves the recommendation.
Doubt said he expects there will be a positive impact on the community from the economics of a project like this. Rizk said an important component of the contract is social procurement and accessing local resources.
Councillor enquires about workers
Councillor Jim Palm asked how many workers were anticipated for the project. Rizk said it’s expected somewhere between 35 and 55 will be showing up to initiate the project. Palm asked what is being done to accommodate them. Rizk said the city is not sure of what measures will be put in place to house workers.
Palm said he is happy to see Graham is a very qualified company that has undertaken massive projects.
Mayor Dave Formosa said there had been talk of a barge coming in to accommodate workers. He asked Rizk if he could enlighten the committee. Rizk said he has no idea if it is going to materialize.
“The final decision is up to the contractor and we have not heard from them,” said Rizk. “We won’t hear until the contract is awarded.”
Committee chair councillor Rob Southcott said it was good to see a BC company being successful in the bidding process.
“From the standpoint of social procurement, one of the big wins is to have it relatively local,” said Southcott. “It’s wonderful to see them and have the confidence in the job they have already done here in BC in the Capital Regional District. It’s a pretty exciting moment after decades.”
When contemplating sending the matter to council two days after its introduction at committee of the whole, councillor Cindy Elliott asked why the vote needed to come in two days, rather than the normal two-week timeframe.
Rizk said according to the schedule, the contract award was supposed to be on April 5. The notice to proceed was April 23. He said delaying the decision until May 6 would push the project too far.
Doubt said he thinks the community has been waiting for the project for a long time and he would like to see it come back in two days.
Elliott said she was fine with the decision. She just wanted to publicly discuss the rationale before moving forward.
