Moose Jaw city council approved a host of call-for-tenders for a wide variety of capital projects during their most recent meeting Jan. 14.
But those decisions didn't come without a fair share of conversation, mostly surrounding the ongoing water main replacement program.
Council passed a motion to issue a tender for WW-17 water main replacement in the amount of $6.5 million, an amount that Coun. Brian Swanson felt was neither enough, nor was the scope of the project nearly as large as it needs to be.
Swanson's largest issue is the speed with which the replacement is taking place – in order to reach the project's goal of 80 kilometres of cast iron watermain replacement over 20 years, around 4,000 metres of pipeline needs to be replaced annually. This past year, around 2,700 metres were replaced.
“You can't have a 20-year program for 80,000 metres and average less that 3,000 metres per year,” Swanson said. “The point I make all the time is we need to increase the scope of this program significantly, there is a payback to the community in that the number of breaks decreases... We're kind of living a sham when we talk about a 20-year program when we're funding it like a 50 to 60-year program.”
Coun. Chris Warren pointed out that as the project continues, further efficiencies will be found, resulting in more and more distance being covered every year.
“We're very early in the process and we've had three different contractors in the four different years, so it's a new process in the great scheme of things,” he explained. “As we move through the project year-after-year, as we upgrade our systems and our records and new technology becomes available, there would be opportunities to do more than the four kilometres in a year.”
Coun. Heather Eby offered a proposal that could help with the issue: multi-year tendering. While such a move would require council approval on a case-by-case basis, it was one Swanson and other councillors agreed with, given how such a process could attract larger companies with heavier equipment and more sizable operations.
“And along with that you hope to achieve lower per unit rates,” Swanson said. “They can do it in such a way that, because they have more than one year, you lower the per-metre amount you have to pay. I'm in favour of that.”
What Swanson wasn't in favour of was the amount of money committed to the project and the immediate plan going forward.
“We should be looking at three-year contracts for $10 million a year and we would get at the situation in a significant way,” Swanson said. “Right now, we're not doing it as we're telling people we're doing it, that is a 20-year-program.”
In the end, council passed all five tender requests as well as the multi-year tender motion:
-- TR-1 Paved Roadways for $2,450,000;
-- WW-17 Water Main Replacement for $6,500,000;
-- TR-2 Sidewalk, Curb and Gutter repair and replacement for $488,300;
-- S-1 Sewer Lining and Manhole Restoration for 789,000;
-- WW-9 Feeder Main Replacement for $2,000,000.
