A rehabilitation project at the Estevan Municipal Airport, is slated to come under budget, but at this point, the City is wary of declaring any financial victories.
Souris Valley Paving was awarded the tender when council accepted their bid for the project during a regular council sitting on March 16. The City set aside $5 million in this year’s budget for the project, with the expectation that 60 per cent of the project cost would be refunded by the province through the Provincial Disaster Assistance Program (PDAP).
The work encompasses all runways and taxiways at the airport.
The tender to Souris Valley Paving comes in under the expected $5 million, with the Estevan company proposing to complete the work for $4,660,584.
Kiflom Weldeab, city engineer, noted in his recommendation to council, the 2015 City budget won’t be reduced to ensure “there is a proper contingency in place for the project should unknown or unforeseen expenses occur.”
The project must be completed by the end of August in order to meet the PDAP requirements and still be eligible for funding. City Manager Amber Smale noted that while that is a deadline, if there are any unforeseen delays leading to a later completion date, it wouldn’t mean the PDAP funds would be pulled.
“You only have five years to use that funding,” said Smale, noting the deadline is nearing following the damage done in 2011.
“They’re not going to carry it over into 2016. They’ve carried over the last few years, so PDAP has said, by the end of August, that project needs to be done in order to receive that funding. They have other people in the queue. (But) PDAP’s not unreasonable,” she added, noting the Aug. 31 deadline has been included in the City’s contract with Souris Valley Paving.
Smale added the project includes new drainage, and because that is an upgrade, the drainage work isn’t covered by PDAP.
The tender closing date was originally Feb. 24, but because of a lack of submissions and requests for extensions, the date was pushed forward to March 3.
Five bids were tabled for the project and Souris Valley Paving’s was the only one below $5 million. However, Nelson Construction Ltd. modified their original bid of $5.099 million without GST to $4.701 million without GST. That bid total came to $4.936 million, however, the company notified the City they would not be able to meet the June 1 project start date.
Regarding the potential for additional work and costs, Coun. Kevin Smith inquired about what kind of ground testing had been done around the airport.
“Are we well aware of what the situation is going into this program?” he asked.
Smale said the project had engineered twice, once in 2011 following the damage, which PDAP is basing its funding on, and another time since.
Mayor Roy Ludwig said the City has encountered problems with contracted projects because they didn’t have people on site monitoring progress and any potential issues.
“We will have people on the ground. One of the problems we’ve had in the past with different contracts is we didn’t have people on the ground watching, helping, getting needed answers every single day. If we don’t do that, it holds the project up,” he said, adding those are obligations they will be honouring.
Smale said the city engineer will be on site throughout the project, and progress updates will be provided to council.
Weldeab noted in his report that due to annual road bans that come into effect and the amount of material hauling required for the project, the contractor was granted permission to begin hauling material to the airport to prepare for the project prior to the tender being awarded.
