Castlegar city council has awarded the civil construction contract for the new castle playground in Millennium Park, despite a bid that was well over budget.
Council heard last week that the city received two bids for this component of the project, which includes site works such as landscaping, fencing, pouring concrete pads, benches, and concrete edging.
However, one bid was disqualified for not meeting all the criteria and the other, from local company Marwest Industries Ltd., was $428,000 when the budget was $315,000, a difference of $113,3000.
Engineering manager Travis Christianson said they approached Marwest about alternative materials and other ways to reduce costs and were able to get the price down to $365,000, although that’s still $50,000 more than expected.
He said costs have gone up substantially due to inflation, especially over the rubberized pour-in-place surfacing. He suspected the time of year the project was tendered was another factor, along with the limited number of available contractors.
“A combination of contingency savings and sponsorships will be explored to keep the project within the overall approved budget,” Christianson wrote in his report to council.
Council previously awarded contracts for construction and delivery of the equipment as well as installation to Parkworks Solutions Corp. of Kelowna.
The overall project is budget is $1.9 million, of which $1.2 million is coming from grants.
