TOWN OF ERIN – Erin council has awarded a contract for the design of a new wastewater treatment facility for the town for $1.5 million.
Council approved a bid from WSP Canada Group Ltd. just for the design and studies phase of the project. Developers who bid did provide a cost estimate for the construction phase of the project but the town isn’t necessarily tied to the designer.
The contractor had the lowest total price proposals of the three developers with the highest coming in $2.6 million in the design phase.
Councillor John Brennan questioned if there was any reason to be concerned about going with a cheaper developer.
“We looked at the level of effort for the various tasks over this multi-year project that the bidders had put together and the technical team was able to determine that the amount of effort appeared reasonable and balanced,” said Darla Campbell, engineer with Dillon Consulting.
Councillor Michael Robins asked if the cost will go up if the designer has underestimated the number of hours required.
Nick Colucci, director of infrastructure services, explained that the contract is made up of two parts with this being the design phase which is a fixed-rate contract.
“What could change the overall price is if a scope changes during the process,” Colucci said to council. “If that happens they’d come back to us and we’d have to come back to council.”
According to a report to council, the funding for this work will be achieved by an agreement with the developers to pay for the engineering fees related to the design. There is no financial impact or taxpayer money used to fund this project.
Construction tendering on the treatment plant is expected to begin in February 2021.
