|
Kincardine on hook for $75,000 partial engineers' payment to get Armow landfill completed By Liz Dadson |
Kincardine council To Comment on this article Click Here |
||||
|
Kincardine must pay an advance of $75,000 on the engineers' fees or the company is not going to complete the Armow Landfill and Waste Management Centre project. That's the word from public works manager Jim O'Rourke who brought the issue to Kincardine council at its Dec. 21 meeting. In committee-of-the-whole, O'Rourke said that Conestoga Rovers and Associates is requesting a partial payment in order to continue work on the project. This, despite the fact that the engineers caused the project to be delayed by a year, and grossly-underestimated the cost. In April of this year, O'Rourke told council that the original estimate for the waste management centre was $688,500, and the original estimate for cell construction was $600,000. So, public works budgeted accordingly. Then, the day before the tenders were to be submitted (March 24), the engineers revised the estimate for the centre to $1.534-million, and for the cell, $900,000. This brought the total project estimate to $2.617-million, compared to the original estimate of $1.457-million. Once tenders came in, O'Rourke had to negotiate with the contractor to scale back the project, to remain within budget. However, he noted there was no contingency fund remaining. The value of the engineering fees, $143,000, would become the contingency allowance. Any balance of that would be paid to the engineers. "There was a mistake made for the estimates to be off 100 per cent," O'Rourke said, at that time. "It's not acceptable." At the Dec. 21 meeting, O'Rourke said the $143,000 in engineering fees and contingency fund were initially to be held until the completion of the project. The waste management centre is complete and in operation, he said, and is $50,000 over-budget. The cell construction is about 75 per cent complete - it has been delayed until the spring. It is currently about $35,000 under-budget, said O'Rourke. "Prior to year end, the engineers are requesting partial payment of the engineering fees," O'Rourke said in his report to council. "The outstanding fees include $13,939.86 for monitoring/operations and other professional fees, and $142,991.79 for engineering fees related to design and construction." Conestoga Rovers claims it did an additional $100,000 worth of work that it did not charge the municipality due to the agreement, said O'Rourke. "The $13,939.86 for other professional fees has been paid," he said. "The engineers are requesting a payment of $100,000 toward the design and construction fees, which would leave a contingency balance of $43,000 for the project." O'Rourke told council that in a conversation with engineer Greg Ferraro, the engineering advance was reduced to $75,000.
|
With an allowance of $10,000 for leachate pumping station, and $10,000 for ground water seepage, and including the deficit from the centre project and the surplus from the cell project, this leaves a contingency of $117,294. Once the $75,000 goes to the engineers, that leaves a contingency of $42,294. O'Rourke said that is more than 12 per cent of the estimated $300,000 in work remaining on the project. Councillor Ron Coristine said this request is pretty bold coming from a company that has questionable ability with financial figures and estimates. "Do they have errors and omissions insurance?" "We're in the middle of the project," said O'Rourke, "and we need to finish it." He said if council does not agree with the advance on the engineers' fees, the two sides would have to enter into third-party negotiations. That wouldn't get the project finished. "I'm nervous about Lake Armow out there," said councillor Kenneth Craig. "Can we deal with that issue (ground water seepage) for $10,000?" O'Rourke said he believes the engineers have addressed the water situation. "Plus, we have $42,000 in contingency, if necessary." "The whole thing has been a pretty big headache for the past year," said mayor Larry Kraemer. "You (O'Rourke) did negotiate with Conestoga Rovers. Are you confident in the $75,000? Is that a fair and reasonable settlement?" "I thought $100,000 was too high," said O'Rourke. "I think $75,000 is reasonable." In council session, approval was given to pay the engineers an advance of $75,000. Scrolling stops when you move your mouse inside the scroll area. You can click on the ads for more
|
||||
|
 for
world news,
books, sports, movies ...Wednesday, December 28, 2011 |
