The City of Revelstoke awarded the construction contract for the new Trans-Canada Highway intersection to local company Speers Construction, but the cost has come in at about $170,000 higher than expected.
“The city is pleased to be working with a highly qualified local contractor on this time-sensitive, high-profile project," said Mike Thomas, the city's director of engineering in a news release. "The city would like to thank the community for all the input we received on the design of this project and are confident the project will reduce traffic congestion in this area.”
The decision to award the contract was not made during a public council session. It was announced in a news release Thursday morning.
The city news release indicates that Speers' bid wasn't the lowest, but that the company "demonstrated sufficient additional qualifications and experience in completing similar sized projects that their proposal was selected over the lowest cost bid.”
It is not yet known how each individual councillor voted on the matter. The Review e-mailed mayor and council asking them to explain their votes, but the response came back from Allan Chabot, the city's Chief Administrative Officer.
"While I can’t speak for council members as to why they voted the way they did on the decision, I think it would be safe to say that is because they believed that decision to award the work to Speers Construction represented best value for the city as recommended by the city’s engineering department and consulting engineers," Chabot wrote.
The project will see a roundabout installed at Victoria Road and Wright Street and changes made to the Mutas Road intersection that will block left hand turns out of the Woodenhead Loop and into the Tim Hortons/Shell station.
Speers' bid came in at $1,868,113.80, $170,000 higher than predicted by consulting firm McElhanney Consulting, and significantly higher than the $1.2 million the city's engineering department budgeted for.
There is no indication in the news release how the extra costs will be covered. Chabot said the city will be pursuing contributions from the Ministry of Transportation and ICBC.
The Review requested a copy of the staff report that went to council on Tuesday. Chabot said three bids were received.
Correction: An earlier version of this story said Mayor Mark McKee and councillor Scott Duke voted against the contract. This is not correct. The Review asked the City of Revelstoke how the vote went and that was the response we received. However, we were just told that was the vote for the treehouse hotel, and not the intersection. The city has not revealed how mayor and council voted. We have updated our story and regret any confusion.