It's debits versus credits for Paradise Lift Station costs
As the change orders pile on to the Lift Station No. 10 replacement project, so do the bills, as two motions were approved by Paradise council this week totaling $169,085.
As relayed by Councillor Deborah Quilty, the cheapest change order deals with the need for additional roof truss anchors to secure the roof trusses to the building.
Quilty said the trusses were designed by the truss supplier after the contract had been awarded.
“The design engineer of record provides the design loads, the layout, and the truss general arrangements,” Quilty said.
The additional trusses and the job of installing them by Olympic Construction comes with a cost of $37,978 but that will be offset by an existing credit of $96,230 plus HST from a previous change order.
Councillor Glen Carew said he had asked director of engineering Chris Milley for clarification on the technical details of the work. Carew quoted Milley as stating that, “The contractor did not anticipate the high magnitude of loads provided by the truss roof designer, post award of the contract, and this result didn’t carry the cost of such robust connections. The design of anchorage connections is dependent on the roof truss design and could not be reasonably foreseen during the intended period.”
Meanwhile, a forcemain break in November of last year caused significant delays in the overall project schedule, incurring delay claim costs and is ultimately the reason for the approval of a separate $131,107 change order.
Olympic Construction submitted the claim which Quilty explained was arrived at after several negotiation sessions involving the contractor, prime consultant, and Town staff.
“All are of the opinion that it is a fair and reasonable claim for the delay,” she said.
Quilty said the delays impacted work on the tower frame, as well as labour, equipment, trailers, crane operators, concrete work, and others aspects of the project.
The expenditure was not budgeted and will be added to the project as a cost overrun.
“The total project overrun will have to be funded and financed with respect to, and in alignment with, our strategic and adopted plans to invest in municipal infrastructure to ensure effective service levels with a strategic action to implement critical sewer infrastructure,” Quilty said.
Carew added the costs to repair the forcemain came on the heels of the cleanup costs of the initial break which he quoted at $125,000.
“It’s unfortunate that it happened but it’s still a bill that has to be paid and we’ve got to move forward with the project,” he said.
Councillor Larry Vaters noted the original price tag would have been $100,000 higher if not for the negotiations.
“Good on staff and good on project management for getting that number down, even though it’s still a high number,” he said. “But it could have been much higher.”
Chad Feehan, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, The Shoreline News
