Williams Lake is trying out a new paving company for its next large road rehabilitation project.
Two ‘valid’ tenders for the $706,896 were received — from Key-West Asphalt of Surrey and Peter’s Bros Construction of Penticton.
Key-West Asphalt’s bid came in at $579,936, excluding GST, and Peter’s Bros Construction was $777,721, excluding GST, noted the City’s senior engineering technologist Jeff Bernardy in a report to council.
For 2020, the City had approved a total $1,555,000 for street improvements in its budget.
Read more: Williams Lake city council considers pre-approval of $2.136 million in capital projects
The $590,000 cost for the Eleventh Avenue reconstruction had already been awarded, leaving $965,000 for city-wide paving.
Coun. Jason Ryll, chair of the public works committee, said they are excited when project tenders come in under budget.
“We realize that we’re taking a bit of risk in the sense of them being a new contractor to the City of Williams Lake but I think the cost savings outweigh the potential risks and these street paving projects are going to be specifically monitored to make sure they are up to snuff,” Ryll said. “If this contractor is good enough hopefully they’ll be able to stick around and bid on future projects.”
By selecting Key-West, Bernardy outlined the total costs which will be $531,896 for asphalt works, $48,040 for utility works.
Additionally a contingency of $65,000 is factored in only if needed, curb repair at $30,000 plus an estimated $80,000 for engineering making the total cost $706,896.
“The value of this was significant and less than what we anticipated predominantly due to competition and the pricing of oil, and with this recommendation we’ve asked staff to go back and make sure we use up the full budget to do additional streets inside the community,” said Coun. Scott Nelson.
“It looks like we will get an additional 35 to 40 per cent in paving in 2020 which is good news.”
Council unanimously approved the awarding the tender to Key-West.
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