HUMBOLDT — A $897,000 contract for consulting services has been awarded for the City’s wastewater treatment upgrade project.
Catterall and Wright Consulting Engineers was chosen from among seven bidders for the contract. They will be responsible for designing and managing the estimated $34 million project to its completion.
The federal government is still determining if it will approve funding for the project under the Investing in Canada Infrastructure Program, but gave the city conditional approval to hire the consultant. If approved, the federal government would pay 40 per cent of the cost. The province has already committed more than $11 million to the project.
The request for proposal (RFP) was advertised on Nov. 19 and closed Dec. 23. The seven bids ranged from $830,000 to just under $2.4 million. A four-person committee ranked them based on methodology, project team, fee proposal, schedule, reference projects and corporate information.
“The RFP was one of the most significant and difficult to rank as thoroughness was essential to respect the professionalism and quality of the proposals that the proponents took the time to create,” Peter Bergquist, the public works director, told council at their meeting Jan. 25.
“The proposals are costly to the proponents and city staff acknowledge and appreciate all the proponents who applied their time effort and demonstrated professional attention to detail, commitment and dedication.”
Catterall and Wright scored 83.9 out of 100, while the second-highest ranking bidder, BCL Engineering, scored 82.8 for their $830,000 bid.
Catterall and Wright had experience on two similar wastewater projects in Saskatchewan using a SAGR (Submerged Attached Growth Reactor) system, which is what the Humboldt project will be using.
“The evaluation committee is confident that they can perform the work to the city's expectations, funding partners and regulatory expectations as well,” Bergquist said.
The $897,000 winning bid is under budget. The city was expecting to have to pay around $2.5 million plus a 20 per cent contingency.
Councillor Rob Muench said he was concerned about Catterall and Wright after delays to the Uniplex parking lot project. Bergquist said while he wasn’t involved in the parking lot project, Catterall and Wright has work on a $1.3 million upgrade to lift station #3 in 2019 and a $4.35 million water distribution facility in 2016 that he was pleased with.
“I'm personally quite comfortable because those projects went very well.”
