By Mark Squibb
Mount Pearl city council awarded a couple of big engineering contracts during its November 4 public meeting.
Firstly, council awarded a $3.9 million contract to Dexter Construction Company Limited for upgrades to Jackman Drive.
It also awarded the tender for the Water Tower Access Road Project to lowest bidder Precision Excavation Ltd., in the amount of $1,277,492, HST included.
“This is a strategic direction where council basically is going to ensure that everything on the other side of Topsail Road will have water available to it to foster the growth here in the City,” said Mayor Dave Aker.
The water tower, for which council has applied for federal funding, will service the Northlands development sandwiched between Kenmount and Topsail roads.
In other development news, council also ponied up $7,829, HST excluded, for additional work on the new community centre.
Councillor Jim Locke noted the work was necessitated because information provided to council indicated the contractor was not at fault, and that existing infrastructure did not match the as-built drawings.
“I’m just wondering the age of the infrastructure and how would something like that happen, that we got these drawings that are supposed to indicate what’s in the ground, but they’re not,” queried Locke. “Is there any recourse for that? Who’s responsible for the infrastructure not matching the drawings which led to such a circumstance?”
Engineering director Scott Batt said given the age of the infrastructure, accurate as-built drawings are vey unlikely.
“It is still a persisting issue today, accurate as-builts,” said Batt. “Like the briefing note said there, it was an unexpected condition. The underground infrastructure was not what was expected, and it was no fault of the contractor. But ultimately it is the design engineer and the contractor that are responsible for as-built drawings once projects are complete. Given the age of the infrastructure, it is very hard to track that down at this point.”
The new centre is expected to be completed by early next year.