By Cecilia Nasmith
Northumberland County council's Public Works Standing Committee will recommend the awarding of the contract for microsurfacing work to Miller Paving Limited at a price of $712,510 (including provisional items) plus HST at the May county council meeting.
The vote was taken at Monday's committee session, where Director of Public Works Denise Marshall acknowledged the contract – which will result in microsurfacing work at various locations within the county – was higher than the $700,000 that had been budgeted.
“What we are seeing in the industry right now is infrastructure pressures as a result of the COVID pandemic and other global events,” Marshall said.
Fortunately, only a couple of weeks previously – at the April county council meeting – there had been good news when it was learned that the county's share of rehabilitation work on County Road 42 had come in at only about 51% of what had been budgeted. The savings totaled more than $680,000, and it was decided at the time that $76,000 of that would be put towards the 2022 microsurfacing program.
Engineering Technician Chad McCormick's report broke down the microsurfacing costs. In addition to the $712,510 bid amount, there is $12,540.18 in non-recoverable HST, $35,000 for contingencies and $15,000 for contract administration costs, bringing the estimated project cost to $775,050.18. With the $700,000 budgeted amount and the $76,000 infusion from the County Road 42 savings, all should be well.
“I don't think any of us will be surprised to see our tenders coming in higher than anticipated,” committee chair Brian Ostrander predicted
