With budget in place and property tax bills ready to mail, Trail council moved on to another seasonal duty last week by awarding $600,000 in contracts for four of the city’s priority projects.
First up was Norlock Refrigeration. Out of six bids (one was disqualified) for infrastructure repairs in the kids rink, the Kelowna HVAC company came in with the lowest bid at $77,290, not including approximately $4,000 GST.
“This much needed replacement within the Memorial Centre’s mechanical system was identified and approved as part of the 2017 Capital Budget process,” noted Chief Administrative Officer David Perehudoff. “Competitive bids were sought and six submissions received … the recommendation provides for the award of the contract for the supply and installation of the new dehumidifier to the lowest qualified bidder.”
Another ongoing project, maintenance of sewer lines, was addressed when council awarded Mar-Tech Underground Services a $355,000 contract for “2017 Trenchless Sanitary Sewer Rehabilitation” project.
Following a 2016 video inspection of all sewer lines that require regular maintenance, the city issued a tender in March for work on approximately 1,800 metres of pipe.
Notably there were no local bidders, and Mar-Tech, a Langley pipeline service, was the lowest of two tenders.
Sewer line upgrades using the “trenchless” approach began in Trail a number of years ago.
As infrastructure ages, cracks, settling, tree root and other disturbances develop over time and deteriorate pipe lines and other conveyance structures that comprise wastewater collection systems.
Under the traditional method, a replacement or additional parallel sewer line would have been constructed by digging along the entire length of the existing pipeline. While these traditional methods of sewer rehabilitation require unearthing and replacing the deficient pipe (the dig-and-replace method), trenchless methods of rehabilitation use the existing pipe as a host for a new pipe or liner. Trenchless sewer rehabilitation techniques offer a method of repair that requires less restoration and causes less disturbance and environmental degradation than the traditional dig-and-replace method.
As expansion of the fitness room in the Trail Aquatic and Leisure Centre (TALC) continues this summer, council had to consider a new lease for cardio equipment as the current agreement expires in August.
Upon review, the group agreed to enter into a three-year $82,000 lease for select Precor equipment.
The city will own all of the existing cardio equipment as of August, so as part of the transition process to new models, council agreed to go through a public process to dispose of the used equipment.
“The fitness centre is a well used space within the TALC and the cardio equipment takes considerable abuse overtime,” noted Trisha Davison, director or parks and recreation.
“It can be expected that any brand of equipment can and will suffer downtime as a result of a maintenance or repair issues … the brand of cardio equipment that is most prevalent in the fitness centre currently is Precor … (they) have served us well for the past three years and very few maintenance issues arose that created downtime on the equipment or that impacted our patrons.”
Lastly, upon review of a public works report, council rewarded a $51,000 contract to launch water treatment upgrades.
Back in 2014 Interior Health advised Trail that its current water disinfection system was inadequate (3 log, which refers to reduction or inactivation of Giardia and Cryptosporidium). Since then the city has worked with a Rossland-based branch of WSP Canada for preliminary design and a respective budget for the installation of a UV Disinfection system in the WTP (Water Treatment Plant). Earlier this year that Trail was approved for a $1,000,000 CWWF grant for WTP work, council approved engineering design and management services to WSP Canada in the amount of $51,000.
“The Director of Public Works has confirmed that there is no requirement within the Funding Agreement for the City to seek competitive bids for this service and that this expenditure will be funded within the grant funding scope as described,” said Perehudoff.
“In this case,continuation with the firm/person who was involved in the original design and budget preparation provides advantage to the city as part of completing the detailed design work and going to tender,” he clarified.
“This is somewhat specialized engineering and the final design must be compliant with all regulatory requirements associated with the implementation of this higher level of water treatment. The direct award will also ensure that design work can start immediately as part of targeting construction for later in the fall after summer water demand subsides.”