Bridge bids settled
Posted by Steven Hurdle on September 15, 2008
At tonight’s Council meeting, Langford Council endorsed Knappet Construction’s bid for building the highway bridge for the Spencer Road Interchange. Interestingly, they did so without any discussion whatsoever, they just went straight to the vote.
The approved bid costs $4,357,123, which includes a 5% contingency for cost overruns. Interestingly, the original budget costed out a 20% cost overrun contingency. Below is the quote from the staff report to Council, now approved for Knappet’s bid (with the 5% contingency in place).
– Steven Hurdle -
The budget for the interchange bridge, set in May 2007 is $4,832,600 plus a contingency of $996,520 (20%) for a total of $5,799,120. Of this amount approximately $120,000 has been spent on gravel foundation pads.
Based on the low tender submitted by Knappett Projects Inc., the budget for the bridge should be revised to $4,035,355 plus a contingency of $201,767 (5%) plus the $120,000 spent on the foundation pads for a total of $4,357,123. Although this represents a considerable savings there are other aspects of the project that still represent a cost risk and therefore the overall contingency amount should not be reduced until more risks are mitigated or avoided. Bridge construction is scheduled to begin in early October 2008 and the contrctor is obligated to complete the structure by May 29, 2009.
Steven Hurdle said
The document seems a little contradictory. It appears to advocate for accepting the bid as is, on the one hand, but advocates for not reducing the contingency fund on the other hand. I’m all for budgeting for the 20% contingency fund, rather than the 5% proposed by the contractor, and if you don’t need it then it’s a bonus at the end.