By Mark Squibb | Vol 8 No. 2 (Jan. 30, 2019)
Mount Pearl council approved change orders for various projects during the Jan. 28 council meeting.
The first was for the Glendale Avenue and Bradley Place Reconstruction project.
That project is currently on hold until the snow melts and summer construction season sets in.
“The original contract for the project was valued at $3,925,996.51 HST included. However, there are some additional amounts that have had to be added to that,” said councillor Andrew Ledwell.
Councillor Andrew Ledwell, standing, brings a number of change orders before mount Pearl council. Seated on his left and right are councillors Bill Antle and Lucy Stoyles.
“When we got down into the road, we found out that the existing storm sewer line and existing manhole system were encased in fact in concrete. And of course, that was not know n at the time of the original design of the project. So that meant there was some additional work that had to be completed. There were some additional items that were required because of that additional work.”
The additional work added additional cost to the project; the change order totalled approximately $200,000. There was a previous change order of $20,000, bringing the new cost to $4,148,155.29.
“This is work that had to be done to make this project happen,” noted Ledwell.
Deputy Mayor Jim Locke noted that it was a lot of money, that theses costs could be expected when doing work in older parts of the City.
“With our new approach to asset management, and our new data tracking and data keeping, theses surprises, I think, will be less frequent in future years as we go to replace future infrastructure. It’s just that in the older parts of the city, in my experience, and I what I’ve found is, there’s the unknow, because we didn’t have the same sort fo record keeping that we have today, as to what’s under the ground. And while it is a lot of money, it doesn’t surprise me, given the area of the City that we’re in,” said Locke.
Next, council approved a change order to work done on Topsail Road and Blackmarsh Road, as the City had realigned traffic through the area over the last year or so.
That incorporated upgrades to Blackmarsh Road as well, which was listed as a separate project.
“The original value of the two projects combined together was $4,925,566.22, HST included,” said Ledwell.
He noted there were revisions to sanitary manholes, repairs to a catch basin, an adjustment made to quantities of materials required, a replacement fo a faulty fire hydrant, and additional hours of inspection.
The change order totalled $169,366.25, HST included.
Another, much smaller change order followed suite.
“There was some work that was done that caused some problems with the driveway at 753 Blackmarsh Road,” said Ledwell.
“There was an incline on that driveway that was made much, much worse by the additional work that was completed on Blackmarsh Road. So as good neighbours, and in the interest of looking after our residents, council stepped up and helped this particular property with realigning the grade on this particular driveway.”
The cost for that change order was $10,235.
The change orders bring the combined cost of the two projects to $5,162,756.83.
Council voted unanimously on all change orders.
