BARRHEAD – The replacement of a culvert along Range Road 35, approximately six kilometres southwest of Vega, will cost the County of Barrhead $12,672 more than originally budgeted.
At their July 18 meeting, councillors passed a motion awarding the construction contract for Bridge File 78033 to Terrapro Inc., a Sherwood Park company, at a cost of $266,842, excluding GST.
When factoring in engineering costs of $55,830, that brings the project’s total price tag to $322,672. The county had originally budgeted $310,000 for this culvert replacement.
Ken Hove, director of infrastructure, told council the existing structure consists of a single culvert, but the project will entail installing two longer culverts.
He noted the county had applied for grant funding through the Strategic Transportation Infrastructure Program (STIP) and was approved in May 2022 for up to 75 per cent of the projected construction cost, which was $232,500.
Coun. Walter Preugschas asked if the grant amount would change now the project was costing more than expected. Both Hove and county manager Debbie Oyarzun stated that it would not.
In any case, the county tendered out the project in late June using MPA Engineering’s online bidding system.
A total of seven bids were received for the project, ranging from Terrapro’s low bid of $266,842 to the highest bid of $469,495.
Coun. Bill Lane said he was surprised by the range of bids for the project, though Hove suggested that the other companies may have other contracts they’re working on.
Because MPA Engineering has had no past experience with Terrapro on culvert replacement projects, Hove said a meeting was held July 11 between the contractor, the engineering firm and the county to go over the scope of the project and specifications.
Hove said they deemed Terrapro was “a competent company,” and as such, MPA’s recommendation was for to award the contract to them.
Reeve Doug Drozd asked what it would theoretically cost for the county to complete this project “in-house”.
Hove suggested it would require more equipment, but more importantly, he believed that if the county handled the project, they’d lose the STIP funding.
Drozd agreed, noting that even if the county tried to replace the culvert, they would still have to pay $55,000 for the engineering work.
