Council ups budget on Third Avenue construction

By Miriam Ostermann, Associate Editor

Soaring prices and a desire to prevent further inconvenience to Strathmore’s downtown business community had council loosen the purse strings and spend a few hundred-thousand dollars more on the Third Avenue reconstruction project than was originally anticipated.
Last year, council approved $1.2 million for the Third Avenue upgrade project stemming from the 2018 capital budget, which was based on the costs incurred on similar modifications to Second Avenue in 2017.
While Second Avenue faced added costs with the addition of a storm sewer system, Third Avenue already contains an existing storm sewer system. Regardless, council was forced to dig into the pockets of financial stabilization to increase the project’s budget by $362,000 in order to meet this year’s deadline.
In comparison to Second Avenue, Third Avenue is facing eight per cent more in costs for site preparation and surface works – most likely due to a greater number of driveway accesses; a 37 per cent increase for landscaping costs as a result of 15 per cent more trees and four additional landscape areas; and a 200 per cent increase, at $100,000, for electrical and light installation.
While administration speculated soaring copper prices and a recovering economy may have contributed to the increase in costs, the amount was a bolt from the blue.
“I was shocked; when I went through the actual numbers, we were about $60,000 for the installation last year and we’re at a $130,000 roughly, and all the bids were in that $100,000 to $150,000 for electrical so I don’t know where the additional cost (is coming from),” said Mark Ruault, director of infrastructure and development services with the Town of Strathmore.
“Maybe it’s that we don’t have the underground this year. We had the storm water (on Second Avenue) which may have hid some of the costs because we had it already opened up so that could be one of the reasons because we already had the heavy equipment for that.”
With an already approved budget of $1.2 million for construction, the lowest bid from Bluebird Contracting Services Ltd. totalled $1.24 million. Along with $121,700 for engineering, $100,000 for lights and $100,000 contingency, the total project equalled $1.56 million.
The downtown enhancement project on Third Avenue includes greater wheelchair accessibility, a 15 per cent increase in trees and four additional landscape areas, parallel parking with different arrangements of bump outs and trees between the roadway and Second Avenue, as well as moving the angled parking from the north side to the south side between Lakeside Blvd. and Second Street.
After much discussion, open houses and online surveys, town administration hopes to minimize the impact to business owners. Therefore, when council was provided with the option of awarding Bluebird Contracting Services Ltd. with the increase in budget or postpone the project until next year with a new tendering process, during the regular council meeting on May 16 some councillors felt postponing was not an option.
“I do know that a lot of our business owners and managers on Third Avenue already made some contingency plans to deal with this,” said Councillor Bob Sobol. “I don’t think anybody wants this as a business person, but they also understand it’s something that will enhance our downtown area and I think they made some preparations. So I would be concerned with putting this off for another year.”
Other councillors questioned the company’s previous work in Strathmore – Waddy Lane and the overlay on Brent Blvd. – but were assured that liquidated damages were set at $2,500 a day to ensure construction meets the expected deadline before Strathmore Stampede and Heritage Days.
With the exception of Councillor Tari Cockx who voted in opposition of the recommendation, council voted in favour of awarding an additional $362,000 for the Third Avenue upgrade project with funds being drawn from financial stabilization, and for a total amount not to exceed $1.56 million. Out of that budget, council also authorized administration to award the tender to Bluebird Contracting Services Ltd. for the amount of $1.24 million.