City of Powell River councillors were apprised of budgetary considerations pertaining to the consolidated wastewater treatment plant and some of the unknown factors facing the project.
At the May 27 city finance committee meeting, manager of engineering services Nagi Rizk provided his monthly progress report on the plant. Rizk outlined the project budget and construction expenses to date and committed construction expenses, which total $67.2 million. The overall budget for the plant is $76 million, so the remaining uncommitted and unspent portion is $8.8 million.
The estimated work for connecting the piping to the wastewater treatment plant, known as the linear work, is $14 to $15 million, so there is a discrepancy, but it’s only an estimate, so the city will see what the actual bids are when this phase of work goes to tender, according to Rizk. He said tendering for the linear work is coming up in a week or so if all goes well.
Rizk said the city called for prequalification for the project and 13 contractors responded who were interested in doing the linear work. He said the city was expecting five or six.
“It was a pretty straightforward process and we shortlisted the 13 to three, and it’s to those that we will be tendering the linear work,” said Rizk.
He reminded councillors that outfall work had been terminated and the city is in mediation with the company contracted to do the job to resolve the contractor’s claims and amounts owed. Work on the outfall ceased when Fisheries and Oceans Canada placed restrictions when environmental factors were discovered. Rizk said outfall work will be rolled into a contract with the general contractor.
Cost to be determined
“It’s still up in the air how much that is going to cost,” said Rizk. “We allowed $3 million for it but we are tendering that portion through the general contractor in the next few months and we’ll find out exactly how much that will be.”
Rizk said he is hoping that next time he appears before councillors it will be for the awarding of the linear work.
Councillor Jim Palm asked if all interest shown in the linear work is from out-of-town contractors. Rizk said that is correct, but two firms from Vancouver Island were shortlisted, along with the general contractor.
Councillor George Doubt, who chairs the finance committee, said the city does not know that the amount of money budgeted for the outfall is going to cover the contract bid.
Rizk said there is $3 million allocated and hopefully that will be sufficient. Doubt said there is some risk of it coming in over budget, and that he was just trying to identify the risks.
Doubt said information Rizk provided showed $8.8 million unspent and the linear work contract being estimated at $14.4 million, plus $500,000 in landscaping.
Rizk said that was a fair assessment, but there are components of the linear work that could be omitted that would not affect the overall project. Doubt asked if the bids came in over budget, were there ways to mitigate expenditures and Rizk said that was correct.
Doubt then asked if the linear work would be going down Willingdon Avenue, to which Rizk said it would. Doubt asked if there was any consideration to burying the utilities along Willingdon Avenue at the same time.
Rizk said that is two separate lines of work and the treatment plant could not cover that cost, and the design of burying the utilities is a totally different ball game.
“It’s a separate project, a separate design and separate funding,” said Rizk. “They don’t go in the same trench.”
Palm asked about archaeological findings. He said there was extensive work done already. He asked if the city had heard from Tla’amin Nation in this regard or the archaeological branch in Victoria.
Rizk said the city has done everything it can do at this time and all the permitting has been received. He said the city had Tla’amin’s blessing on the linear work as well as the treatment plant. The city also has an archaeological consultant who will be present and monitoring, he added.
“We covered every base we can think of,” said Rizk.
