City of Powell River council has approved additional funding for an upgrade to the drinking water system.
The original budget for the project was $8.485 million. Two-thirds of the cost came from infrastructure stimulus funds from the federal and provincial governments, with the balance from the city.
The project included connecting the water main from Townsite to Wildwood, constructing a booster pump station at Aspen Avenue and Cedar Street and a UV (ultraviolet) facility and a two-celled reservoir that can hold about 7.75 million litres of water on Haslam Street.
At a recent council meeting, councillors passed a motion to approve an additional $363,640 for the project, with $177,000 to come from the 2012 water fees and charges and $186,640 from the water operating fund prior year’s surplus.
That brings the total for the project to $8,914,941.
Council approved an additional $66,301 for the project in April. Those funds were to cover a $16,301 overrun, as well as for environmental monitoring needed for draining the reservoir, equipment for an alarm system installation and additional contract administration costs.
City staff presented a report to council about the cost overruns at a special in camera committee-of-the-whole meeting recently.
Richard Stogre, manager of engineering services, said the biggest reason for the cost overrun was due to “external factors.”
Those “external factors” included modifications required by BC Hydro at the UV facility, ranging from repositioning a conduit to a completely redesigned electrical cabinet.
Stogre said the city had “no way to say no” to those additional requirements.
As well, the reservoir sits on land owned by Island Timberlands, Stogre said. “Because of the easement agreement we had for a number of years, we were allowed to put additional facilities on there,” he said.
The city had to take down some trees on the property and Island Timberlands required that they were cut, bucked up and transported in a certain way. “There were additional funds required there,” Stogre said.
When excavation work began for the reservoir, a large pocket of clay above and beyond the expected amount was discovered, which led to additional work that absorbed the project’s contingency.
As well, Stogre said, the ministry of transportation and infrastructure had provided inaccurate drawings for the area around the bridge crossing Powell River, which resulted in additional engineering and construction work.
The pump station in Townsite had to be relocated due to legal and community concerns, which resulted in additional engineering costs, Stogre also said. According to the report he wrote for council, the relocation was originally estimated to cost $80,000, but the final cost was approximately $120,000.
Additional funding approved by council includes $40,000 to upgrade Haslam Street to provide overflow drainage, as the ministry of environment refused to permit the city to use the creek at the site. It also includes $90,000 for the potential rerouting of power around the site.
When asked why the report was given in camera, Stogre said the city is under contract. “We were discussing contractual obligations that we have at this current time,” he said. “That was the reason it was decided by the CAO [chief administrative officer] to have it in camera.”
Stogre also reported that, as of that day, the community was being supplied with water that was going through the new system and the bypass line had been severed.
