City hall has fired the engineering firm overseeing the 16th Avenue feeder main replacement project and will give nearly $2 million to another contractor to complete a section of the project.
Since then, ISL Engineering — which the municipality hired to manage the 16th Avenue project — worked to complete the design and tender documents for the rest of the project. However, on July 24, the department informed the firm that it was terminating the contract. ISL then agreed to provide a project close-out — a complete tender and design package — for August worth $150,000.
City hall informed city council of this decision during the Aug. 14 regular meeting, with council unanimously agreeing to accept change order No. 4 for the feeder main project and give $1,706,118.50 to NIS Contractors Ltd. (NISCL) to complete a portion of the project.
City hall plans to pull this money from areas in this year’s budget that deal with feeder mains, sanitary sewers, paved roads and storm sewers. The project does not require extra funding.
With the firing, city hall will handle the tender, construction management and construction close-out for the feeder main project using in-house resources, explained Bevan Harlton, director of engineering.
“There (haven’t) been any issues with ISL; they’ve done a good service for the city,” he remarked. “We asked them to complete a design that would take us through construction and we’ve since changed our mind on that … . We’re going to handle construction ourselves.”
Moving this other work in-house allows for project and scope flexibility and enables the municipality to integrate this project into other construction initiatives such as cast iron, Harlton continued.
Meanwhile, city hall will use NISCL — its current cast iron water main replacement contractor — to finish 450 metres of the 16th Avenue project this year. This includes provincial sanitary work, storm infrastructure renewal, water infrastructure renewal, and road and sidewalk repair and replacement.
Remaining costs are based on unit rates of the cast iron contract and are favourable when compared to the 16th Avenue project’s unawarded phase 1, said Harlton.
The engineering director’s report noted that besides the $1,706,118 for the change order, an extra $50,000 will be needed for additional quality-assurance testing and $142,000 will also be required for overhead plus salary and remuneration.
The remaining capital budget for this year’s feeder mains, sanitary sewers, paved roads and private-side services is $2.9 million.
Harlton noted that any unused money would be carried into 2024 to complete the remaining 1,500 metres on 16th Avenue; his department is looking to package work on that street, plus cast iron and Coteau Street, for next year.
Coun. Dawn Luhning was concerned about any possible “blowback” with the city terminating ISL’s contract and wondered if the engineering department had asked the legal department to review the decision beforehand.
The department ran the decision by city hall’s legal team, although it’s unlikely there will be fallout since both parties have had nothing but positive relations, said Harlton.
“We terminated this contract with ISL with our thanks. The ending of this project has been done amicably. We’re still working with them on other projects,” he added.
Coun. Crystal Froese commended Harlton and his team for finding a solution since this work must be done, while she could also see efficiencies with performing the work in-house. She noted that contracting out services might be difficult during the next few years in this atmosphere of high material costs.
“We’re definitely maybe not experts yet in this, but we’ve certainly spent enough years working on cast iron and everything that’s under our streets that I think we’re definitely getting there,” she added.
The next regular council meeting is Monday, Aug. 28.
