County of Brant council members accepted a contract for the new south Paris elevated water storage tank at the Administration and Operations Committee meeting on Tuesday, February 15.
County of Brant staff negotiated the contract for the tank with Landmark Structures Co. and is expected to cost $5,903,400, excluding HST.
In addition to the main cost, the County will enter a contract worth $104,107 with GM Blue Plan Engineering Limited to carry out the detailed design for the electrical and mechanical equipment for the project. As well as a contract with First Nations Engineering for the contract administration and inspection services, valued at $281,740.
The entire South Paris Elevated Water Storage Tank is estimated to cost $6,289,247. The costs of this project were included in the recent Development Charges By-Law update to recover most of the costs from development.
In the meeting, county staff said that while they do not have an exact number for how much of the cost will not be covered by new development, they are estimating 10 to 15 per cent.
Councillor Joan Gatward asked why this project’s cost was considerably higher than the cost of the recently built elevated water storage tank at the airport.
“The unfortunate part is we all see that costs are skyrocketing,” said Alex Davidson, Director of Water for the County of Brant. “Escalation is fierce right now and availability of materials is driving that along with the workforce. We believe that this represents the market price. The other advantage in negotiating directly with the supplier here is that there are no what-ifs in his tender bid.”
There are sufficient funds approved in the Capital budget for the project. It is scheduled to be completed before the end of the year.
