Council has awarded the tender for the construction of the new Public Works Facility to Vic Van Isle Construction (VVI). VVI was the successful contractor selected after a competitive Request for Proposal. The bids for the construction varied from $15 million to $17.9 million. All of the bids received were well over the budget estimates prepared by a quantity surveyor.
Since receiving the proposals in November, the City has been working to reduce the costs for the new facility while at the same time retaining the functionality. Through a process of simplifying the building, reducing the size of various parts of the buildings and reducing the size of the ancillary buildings, the City has trimmed the estimated cost for the site and facility works to $12.7 million.
Council has determined that this project must proceed. As time goes on, it’s increasingly more difficult to maintain a safe public works facility. The combination of high construction inflation and deteriorating existing public works buildings, make it essential to proceed without further delay.
On October 20, 2018, the Public Works Facility Referendum passed with 76.20% of the voters in favour of borrowing up to $8.5 million. The long-term borrowing for this project will remain the same at $8.5 million, with the balance to come from various reserves and surplus accounts. The increased cost of the project will not result in larger tax increase for taxpayers.
The new Public Works Facility is expected to be complete in November 2020.
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