Contracts for the next stage of the Church Road well field project have been granted by the Sunshine Coast Regional District (SCRD), less than a month after receiving the water license from the provincial government.
At Jan. 13 meetings, staff introduced the agenda item as one they had been “looking forward to presenting” to the board for a long time.
The Church Road well field, once online, will be allowed under the water license to extract a maximum of 1,250,000 cubic metres of water annually. Users of the system spent 41 days on Stage 4 water restrictions last summer.
The budget was increased from $8,270,000 to $8,788,959, which will be funded from a long-term loan for the project. The SCRD is also preparing a temporary borrowing bylaw for up to $9 million. An alternative approval process for that amount was successful on July 20, 2020.
The contract for construction of phase 4B of the project has been awarded to Maycon Construction Ltd. for up to $7,585,265 (not including GST), while the contract for construction management services was awarded to Associated Environmental for up to $990,686 (not including GST). Staff also recommended a contingency of around five per cent ($350,000) for unforeseen circumstances.
The invitation to tender for the construction contract was posted on Nov. 1, 2021, and requested qualified contractors complete the construction and commissioning of the Church Road well field, water treatment plant/pump station, a new water transmission main, two new water distribution mains and civil infrastructure. The SCRD received three compliant bids, including from the successful proponent’s $7,235,265, as well as bids of $8,473,260 and $9,575,000.
The report states Maycon Construction Ltd.’s submission satisfied the requirements and provided the best value for the project, coming within three per cent of the engineer’s estimate of $7,025,250.
Associated Environmental has been the consultant for hydrogeological, environment and engineering purposes throughout the well field development, permitting and design phases, the report states. A notice of intent to directly negotiate with Associated Environmental on the scope and fee of the construction management contract was posted on BC Bid in late October 2021 and received no objections.
Archaeological monitoring of the SCRD’s utility construction projects will be done by In-Situ Consulting Inc. within Sḵwx̱wú7mesh territory, as according to a multi-assessment permit with the Heritage Branch of BC. The fee proposal for In-Situ is $84,673 (not including GST), but that price could increase if a substantial amount of archaeologically significant materials are found during construction, the staff report notes.
The SCRD has also estimated power line upgrades by BC Hydro to the new water treatment plant/pump station will be about $150,000.
Approximately $1,178,070 had been spent on the project at the time of the Jan. 13 report.
