The City of Terrace has approved more funding for Birch Hill repairs, after all of the bids submitted for the project came in over the city’s $300,000 budget.
In total, council greenlighted the use of $77,500 from its Northern Capital Planning Grant to repair the shoulder and walkway, as well as stabilization of a portion of the road itself.
A section of the road was closed off at the start of the year after cracks were spotted in the asphalt, and an initial geotechnical assessment prepared for the city said the “road section failed due to a combination of oversteepened hill slopes and improperly designed and constructed retaining walls.”
Council originally allocated $300,000 for the repair project and is taking the money from a reserve account created when the province provided grants in 2019 and 2020 for capital projects.
Kitimat-based Daudet Creek Contracting Ltd. submitted the winning bid at $263,000 on the budgeted project, but after contingencies, engineering fees and city-borne costs, the total price tag is $377,461, according to Jonathan Lambert, director of public works and engineering.
“The bid that we received was competitive, of the three bids that we received it was, I don’t recall exactly, 100,000 to 180,000 dollars lower than the next bid, and after careful screening of the reasons why we’re confident the contractor can execute the work at that bid price,” Lambert said during an Aug. 23 presentation to council.
Lambert added that it is not unusual for budgets to increase at that scale after the bidding phase because the original estimate was done based on a visual inspection before there was any detailed design.
The contract contains both contract work and in-house work, with city crews able to undergo storm drain repairs.
Bidding for the project closed Aug. 5, and a site visit to Birch Hill took place July 27 for interested parties.
The construction window for the project is two to four weeks, with paving to potentially take longer depending on the availability of the paving contractor.
According to the city, construction is expected to start in about two weeks.
READ MORE: Terrace’s Lanfear Hill reopened to traffic after road, shoulder repairs