The project to improve the drainage around Whitesand Drive has hit a roadblock, after the lone bid for construction on the project came back much higher than the City of Yorkton had anticipated.
The initial budget for the project was $700,000, which would see the drainage pipe size increased from 450mm to 1,200mm. This plan was approved on the Jul. 16, 2018 regular council meeting.
The city received a lone bid on the project. The bid was for 2019 construction from Wyonzek Bros. Const. Ltd. in the amount of $1,121,575.08, taxes included. In negotiating with the construction company, administration was able to lower the cost to $808,686.45, for a total project total of $1,200,000. The $500,000 beyond the approved budget would be allocated to the 2019 capital budget.
While it comes to the significantly higher price tag, Rene Richard, Director of Engineering, explained that when it came to the detailed design, a number of conflicts with other utilities were discovered which increased the cost of the project.
City council was not pleased with the significant increase of the cost of the project. Councillor Aaron Kienle wanted to know if there were other options.
“We heard in the last meeting how pressing it is and how it keeps becoming an issue, but to me it’s a tough ask... This is something where it is affecting a single street. There is no doubt about it, I feel terrible for them and something needs to be done, however it’s a rather large project for that one street, coming in at the same as the entire cost of Broadway to repave.”
Councillor Ken Chyz was largely concerned with putting the remainder of the budget for the project in the 2019 capital budget. He wanted administration to look at other funding for the project, such as projects that were under budget, or the surplus from 2017. He stated that without the hit to the future capital budget he would have supported the project.
“My concern is that we’re adding things onto the capital budget for next year and we haven’t even started yet. I’m thinking we should start at ground zero rather than starting $500,000 in the hole.”
Mayor Bob Maloney reminded council that the problems on Whitesand Drive would not go away without doing the work.
“If we do what we need to do, that problem will be looked after, and we won’t have to look at this again.”
City manager Lonnie Kaal warned council that it was possible that the negotiated prices would no longer be applicable if the decision was delayed three weeks, putting the city at risk of requiring a re-tender for the project, depending on the position of the contractor. If they delayed it to capital budget time in December, Kaal said, it was very unlikely that the bid would still be available.
A single councillor, Randy Goulden, voted to go along with administration’s recommendation to accept the bid and put the remainder of the budget on the 2019 capital budget.
Kienle thought that rejecting the current plan wouldn’t have a major effect on the project.
“This isn’t going to delay the project, the project is still going to happen, potentially in 2019, whether we approve today or we take a look at it in our 2019 budget. All I am saying is it’s a big decision with a big price tag on it that is potentially going to upset people who have been dealing with flooding year after year as well who haven’t been getting funding. I think we need to take a closer look at it.”
Council instead voted to delay approval of the bid until the next meeting of council on Oct. 29, to explore alternate funding for the balance of the budget.
