Asbestos removal from the Trail Memorial Centre is costing the city a pretty penny.
Having a healthy contingent for the $1.25 million roofing job came into play this week when the two tenders for asbestos removal came in $178,000 and $207,000 above the city’s allotted $120,000 abatement budget.
After review during the Monday governance meeting, council awarded a $300,000 contract to the lowest bidder, Nucor Environmental Solutions of Surrey.
“The work involved is highly specialized given the measures that must be taken to deal with the collection and disposal of hazardous material,” said Chief Administrative Officer David Perehudoff. “The city is fortunate in that other aspects of the project have come in under budget and with these savings as well as the project contingency, the total costs should still fall in line with the total approved budget,” he clarified.
“The TMC (Trail Memorial Centre) roof project is seen to be an extremely high priority and with the grant funding available, the city is left with little choice but to proceed with the low bid received … the project (must be) fully completed and the grant claimed by the end of this year.”
That leg of the project followed council awarding a $672,000 contract to Kelowna-based Liang Roofing. The city received two bids for this major part of the job, which is, of course, to install a new roof. One bid was local but considerably higher than the the city’s $713,000 budget, so as low bidder, Liang Roofing received the contract.
With all components now in the bag, the job is ready to roll, although the timeline is still up in the air.
“The project schedule to finish will not be known until next week,” explained Mayor Mike Martin. “When the city meets with the contractors who will deal with the roof removal (asbestos) as well as the company that will install the new roof.”
The project is somewhat complicated given that the two contractors must coordinate their schedules and work accordingly.
“A date is not known and we will be seeking schedules from both contractors next week,” Martin added. “I would suggest we are aiming to have the job fully completed by the end of October.”
After being on the radar for a number of years, the TMC roof replacement job was given the green-light by council earlier this year only because the city was approved for up to $1.16 million through Federal Gas Tax funding.
Two other elements were approved prior to asbestos abatement and roof installation, those being an $82,000 lighting contract to Power Tech Electric and $73,000 to Hi-Pro Sporting Goods for a specialized “Low E” ceiling.
“Should there be any additional unforeseen issues that do arise, staff will do their best to manage the costs as part of trying to bring final project costs within the total budget approved,” Perehudoff noted. “However, given the nature of the project and the associated timing, once the physical removal of the roofing material occurs, any necessary work identified will have to be completed. The budget could therefore still be exceeded and any incremental costs would have to be funded from prior years’ surplus.”