The rising cost of labour, materials and unforeseen expenses has the City of Terrace dipping into its various reserves and accounts to cover the cost of its largest civil works project this year — replacing water and sewer pipes on a section of Graham Ave. and then rebuilding and repaving the road surface.
From a forecast cost of $2.59 million the full price tag will now be $3.956 million, city council has conceded in considering a detailed memo form engineering and public works director Ben Reinbolt.
The difference will come from a provincial grant available for capital projects, a federal gas tax rebate grant received annually and water and sewer reserves. Municipal property taxpayers won’t be directly affected.
One factor driving up the cost was inflation on the cost of materials and asphalt paving, Reinbolt explained in a detailed memo.
The city also contracted out the detailed project design to a private firm as it did not have enough staffers to do the work.
Reinbolt also cited “significantly increased unit costs for equipment and labour our region” for the project which will run along the 4800 and 4900 blocks of Graham from Eby to Kenney.
That’s been noted by previous city officials in that it has had to compete with large-scaled industrial projects now underway in the region.
City officials several years ago cited the need to replace the current 350mm sewer pipe along Graham with a one of 525mm to prevent sewer backups and to allow for future growth.
The current water pipe of asbestos concrete will be replaced with one of PVC but the old pipe itself will be left in the ground and filled with concrete so that it does not collapse, Reinbolt told council in an April 11 briefing.
“Due to the cost of removal, the decision was made to leave it in place,” he said of the old pipe.
Once the underground works have been done, the new asphalt road surface will be nine metres wide and there will be a sidewalk, Reinbolt added.
The majority of the work is going to be done by Progressive Ventures whose bid of $2.613,645.95 was judged the best of the two that were received.
Reinbolt said the cost of paving and building the sidewalk is outside of the Progressive Ventures contract but within the new cost of the complete project.
The expense, size and complexity of the Graham Ave. project is such that it is the only major road construction project to be undertaken by the city this year.
Several other projects originally planned for this year have either been deferred to other years or shelved altogether.