Yorkton Council has approved a tender to begin what is essentially Phase I of the Dracup Avenue Drainage Project.
At its regular meeting June 27 Council learned the City had received four tenders for the project ranging from $663,237 to the winner R.J. Tulik & Son Trenching and Excavating, to a high of $1,126,781.
The tendered project consists of the construction of a storm water channel from Smith Street to Darlington Street and a storm pond.
The scope of work provided in this phase did not include the finished landscaping, construction of the bike path, plantings as well as the installation of fill for where the commercial development is to be located, explained the report to Council.
"An estimate was prepared by Crosby Hanna & Associates for the landscaping and bike path. Their estimate is $387,650 to complete that component of the work," added Gord Shaw, Director of Planning and Engineering with the City.
In addition the project would include the City placing fill for an adjacent commercial property.
"The total fill requirement is estimated as 100,000 cubic metres for the commercial site. The Honda site requires approximately 16,000 cubic metres. This is the most critical site to have fill material given the proposed start date of September. The City has suitable fill material available for this site and possibly the next four acres. After that, it will need to obtain fill material from another source," detailed the report.
When the tendered cost, landscaping, bike paths, engineering and contingency costs were totalled the project cost was $1,353,542, well above the budgeted $800,000, explained Shaw.
Administration suggested allocating a portion of next year's project monies to this year's to make up the difference and recalculate the total budget for all three phases.
As this is the first phase of three phases, it is possible that the pond located to the west of this one could be constructed cheaper than the $80,000 allocated to it. It will not consist of a storm channel and will be constructed as a typical wet storm pond.
Councillor Richard Okrainec said while he was keenly aware "we have to get these done," he questioned whether the landscaping was a cost to incur until the two additional ponds are budgeted for?
"Personally I'd rather see the project finished and see the beautification later," he said.
Shaw said "landscaping was an add-on to the project," with the goal it would " actually help to really beautify the particular corridor of the city." He added, "it's probably better to try to do it all at once rather than piecemeal."
In the end Council unanimously approved the tendered work, but did not proceed with beautification at this time.
