ELORA – Construction on the St. David Street bridge in downtown Fergus is almost complete, but the cost estimate has come in about $375,000 over budget.
The overall cost is estimated at $4.4 million; the budgeted estimate was just over $4 million.
Managing director of corporate services Dan Wilson explained on Sept. 9 that the 2020 budget discussions would include the allocation of funds from the capital reserve to cover the extra $375,000.
The municipality received a Connecting Link grant through the Ministry of Transportation for about $2.28 million in April 2016, explained managing director of infrastructure services Colin Baker.
After conducting the class environmental assessment, public meetings and consultations, by June 2017 council had approved the preferred alternative.
During the detail design phase, from May to October in 2017, it became clear through “the public consultation process … this wasn’t just going to be another highway bridge that we would see over the 401 and some other locations,” Baker said.
“This was going to be something a little more special to fit in with the surroundings in the heritage landscape of downtown Fergus, a number of heritage designated buildings and a pretty important location in the community.”
Mayor Kelly Linton added council approved the additional costs to the project.
“For a couple of years we didn’t think we were ever going to get provincial money to do this bridge, so that when we got [it] we didn’t want to have a chance to lose it again,” he explained.
“So the council of the day decided to move ahead with the additional cost, so that was the cost that we provided – just over four million was the council approved added expenditure.”
The contract was awarded in December 2017 and from the third week of January to Nov. 30, 2018 the bridge was closed to traffic.
However, throughout its completion, the bridge project did run into a few challenges.
Baker explained there was a surprise 5,000 gallon fuel tank below the sidewalk by the Fergus Marketplace.
“We knew there were coal storage bins, we didn’t realize those coal storage bins were likely repurposed into fuel oil … underground storage tank in the location,” he said.
The bin was in good shape and there wasn’t much environmental clean up required.
“We basically had a specialized contractor come in and decommission the tank and remove it from the site,” Baker explained.
“This was an area that we cannot get access to. It was formerly a patio … so this is something we couldn’t see until we were in the construction phase. So there were some additional costs with that.”
Another challenge was that when Union Gas was installing new main lines along the bridge no other contractors could work on the site.
“When they’re working in the construction zone our contractor has to kind of step away because it’s a ministry of labour issue; you can’t have two contractors working on the same space,” Baker said.
“So what we thought was probably a two-week union gas installation kind of dragged on for I think four weeks, almost a month, and so that kind of put things behind a little further.”
While the main water line used for fire suppression for the Fergus Marketplace was being replaced, stone began crumbling and masons were hired to repair the stone as the work was being done. Masons also filled in some windows.
The water service was also leaking and needed to be replaced and some of the soil was contaminated so new material was needed.
“The contractor … was really good to work with through this, but these were things that weren’t anticipated during the design phase,” Baker said.
“So we didn’t have things specifically identified in the contract for some of this and so they resulted in extras or changes to the contract.”
Baker also outlined challenges on St. Andrew Street, where valves broke when township staff tried to isolate the water main being replaced at the bridge.
“It was essentially a water main break and water started rushing to the surface and flooding St. Andrew Street,” Baker explained.
The contractor also worked at night to minimize the impact on businesses when possible.
“And so the contractor was good to work with us on that but there was a premium charge ordered to do that work at night to minimize those business impacts,” said Baker.
Another unexpected cost was paving the bridge.
Asphalt needs to be laid in warmer temperatures and with cold temperatures arriving in November, Baker said the township chose to do a “sacrificial asphalt base layer” and then the true asphalt surface was completed in 2019.
“We didn’t want to put down a surface and just have it all crack and be ruined the following year,” Baker said. “Because … if it’s not placed within the proper specification, the warranty on that doesn’t apply.”
Baker expects minor work to fully complete the bridge. Bell needs to remove the overhead lines and then minor concrete work is needed once those are installed.
