Another $300,000 budget increase was approved for the Church Road Well Field project at the May 11 Sunshine Coast Regional District board meeting.
That addition brings the project’s spending allocation to $9,570,000.
The latest funding infusion is required to pay for increased costs for contractor Associated Environmental Inc. That firm’s contract was increased by $222,592 to a new total of up to $1,520,000 (excluding GST), which includes a $63,897 contingency allowance. The original contract award was $990,686, which was increased to $1,297,408 in October of last year.
In a late report added to the agenda on meeting day, staff outlined that “substantial additional consultant and staff time has been incurred in the pursuit of gathering environmental creek flow data, and other pertinent environmental data, to demonstrate the impacts the operation of the Church Road wells will have on Soames Creek."
That report also detailed that other project cost escalations and delays were the result of the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on project construction. While water supplies are projected to be flowing from the site in June, if Stage 2 water restrictions are enacted, the project completion including closeout is not expected to be completed until the end of July, according to the report.
Staff at the meeting told the board the project was “complex and complicated” and had involved more than 100 clarifications and change orders.
Funding for the cost change is slated to come from the regional district’s capital reserves.
Correction: An earlier version of this story incorrectly stated that there had been more than 100 contract and change orders. We regret the error.
