Saltwire Network
CORNER BROOK, N.L.
Corner Brook City Council voted Monday to approve a change in the agreement it has with Harbourside Transportation Consultants for consulting work on a roundabout for Confederation Drive and West Valley Road, but not before a few questions were answered.
The roundabout has been a bit of a controversy for city council with not all members in favour of putting it in. Those in opposition feel there’s not enough traffic at the intersection to warrant a roundabout.
Putting a roundabout at the intersection was recommended in a traffic study the city had completed.
It was one of 24 infrastructure projects that the city submitted for funding under the federal Investing in Canada Fund. The roundabout was on the lower end of the list of items that had been submitted, but it’s one that got approved.
The estimated cost of the project is $850,000 and in March the city approved a $77,435.25 contract with Harbourside for prime consulting work.
During Monday’s public council meeting there was a motion to amend the contract and pay Harbourside another $39,916.50 for an increase in consulting services.
The city had originally planned to carry out residential inspection services for the project using staff from its engineering department. However, due to other work commitments and the expected level of effort required, that is no longer possible the city says.
Coun. Vaughn Granter presented the motion during the meeting and was the first to question it.
Granter asked if the extra $39,916.50 would be cost-shared among the contributing partners — the city and provincial and federal governments.
“Or is it $40,000, a sum that would fall on the shoulders of the taxpayers of the City of Corner Brook?”
Darren Charters, the city’s director of community, engineering, development and planning, said it would not be an extra cost and would come out of the total project funding.
Granter also wondered should there be a budget line for the service in the project even though it was going to done by city workers.
Charters said it is a typical piece of service that would be a budget line in a tender document, it’s just the city hoped to save money by having staff do it. He added that all the proponents for the tender actually bid on that section, just it had been included as an optional piece in the tender document.
Charters doesn’t anticipate there will be any more changes to the agreement.
Coun. Linda Chaisson is one who has been opposed to the project from the start.
She asked about the scope of the work in terms of the time it will take.
Charters said the consulting piece is from Day 1 to Day Finish on the project.
A timeframe for completion of the project was not given, but Chaisson asked if there is a chance it could take longer than anticipated and result in more costs.
Charters said there is always a chance it could go over but is something he will be watching closely.
The city has no plans for a full road closure during the construction period due to the lack of a good detour route, but Charters said there could be intermittent closures.
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