That bad news was revealed Monday as councillors decided on awarding the tender for the sewage force main and sewer trunk lining portion of the project. Council awarded the tender to the lowest of three bidders, Hamm Construction Ltd. of Saskatoon, in an amount up to $8,928,500 including PST and not including GST. This was on the recommendation of project engineer, AECOM Canada Ltd. That tender bid actually fell below the initial price estimates by about $122,000. It was the costs for the rest of the project that produced the headaches for council on the evening. According to the memo provided by Director of Operations Stewart Schafer to council, Contract 1 for the sewage pumping station is now estimated at $5,751,454, almost $2 million more than initial estimates.
Property owners are being asked to not use water during the evening when the flushing signs are on the street. Signs will be placed on each street where that night’s flushing will take place and will be removed once the mains have been flushed. If the signs remain up, residents are welcome to use the water the next morning but they will be back to finish the flushing the next night. ATAP Infrastructure Management Ltd. will be assisting City waterworks staff in conducting the flushing, which is expected to be done over a period of two weeks. Anyone with questions about the flushing can call City Hall at 306-445-1700.
He raised those concerns again at Planning Committee, saying he had received an email from Derek Mahon, former Battleford mayor, whose local group had put in a bid to be the project management team for the trunk main project work. They had submitted their written application and were the low bid, said Ironstand, but ended up ranked fifth out of six bidders in the evaluation by AECOM and were eliminated from consideration. Ironstand made the case that Mahon’s company was “quite capable of being project managers.” He also noted no formal interview took place and the decision was made based on the written submission.
The presentation outlined the work that had been done over recent years in the downtown, including discussion of streetscapes and curb extensions. The curb extensions, also known as bulb-outs, that have been placed downtown on 100th and 101st Streets have been a source of controversy in the past couple of years, with residents openly questioning whether they will create a safer traffic situation downtown. There has been particular concerns expressed that the bulb-outs make it more difficult for large vehicles turning at intersections. Mackrell’s presentation included a lengthy justification for curb extensions downtown. Those include creating a pedestrian-friendly environment downtown by reducing the distance by half that pedestrians have to walk from sidewalk to sidewalk.