Four months after city council gave an engineering firm additional money to address issues with servicing the Agri-Food Industrial Park, that same company needs more money due to further “additional complexities.”
The original agreement with ISL Engineering and Land Services was for $371,966. The company was tasked with installing certain services for SaskPower’s power station and upgrading water main replacements and sanitary and storm sewer assessments.
However, in April, council agreed to provide extra funding of $229,485.35 — the city’s share was $103,250.70 and SaskPower’s was $114,234.65 — since ISL needed to provide additional engineering services. This increased the project to $601,451.35.
During the Aug. 23 regular council meeting, council unanimously agreed to provide $206,800 plus taxes to ISL, with the city’s share being $62,040 and SaskPower paying the rest. This funding is expected to come from the existing budget in the Southeast Industrial Subdivision account.
With this increase, the cost has now jumped to $808,251.35.
This $2.7-million project will see 3.8 kilometres’ worth of water feeder mains installed to connect SaskPower’s power station to the city system. The project also upgrades water mains and storm and sanitary sewer pipes along Fairford Street East from Third to Eighth avenues northeast before turning south and going under the river.
The project is expected to finish by October.
Project outline
Bevan Harlton, director of engineering services, explained that ISL has taken on additional tasks and has not applied any overhead to handle these services. Furthermore, the company has been co-ordinating work with other sub-contractors and both rail companies since the work is happening near rail crossings.
“(ISL) is a company that has done very well for the city,” he said.
The extra costs are due to “additional complexities” such as ISL needing to be on-site for more days, both rail companies needing an employee there during work near the rail lines, handling the removal of contaminated land and dealing with an unknown underground SaskTel duct on Fairford Street East, Harlton continued.
ISL expects to be on-site for 800 hours until October, which is 220 hours more than expected.
The land contamination on Lorne Avenue near Manitoba Street East was “not unexpected” since the city previously identified it during preliminary design work, but the contamination was beyond the anticipated amount, he said. Gibson Energy used that area in the past, while regular construction efforts are now addressing the affected soil.
Construction crews discovered the SaskTel duct while digging under the Fairford Street East bridge. The duct was something that not even the Crown corporation knew about, Harlton added. Since it would take six to seven weeks to remove, city hall instead directed ISL to move the sanitary sewer line elsewhere.
Council discussion
Many of these extra costs are fixed, so it’s impossible to argue against them, said Coun. Jamey Logan. Moreover, there are many moving parts when digging underground, and sometimes crews come across infrastructure that wasn’t recorded decades ago.
Coun. Crystal Froese agreed with Logan’s assessment.
“It does not surprise me that (the engineering department) is here with a scope change when it’s going under an overpass that’s very, very old,” she said.
This project is unlike anything the city has done before, Froese added, considering it’s going under a bridge, east on Fairford Street, under the Manitoba Street East Expressway, and under the Moose Jaw River, before connecting to the industrial park on the south side.
The next regular council meeting is Monday, Sept. 13.
