The City of Corner Brook has signed a contract with Pomerleau Inc. for the design and construction of the municipality’s new water treatment plant.
The cost of the plant, which will also serve the neighbouring towns of Massey Drive and Mount Moriah, will be nearly $25 million, plus HST, and is scheduled to be producing water by March 2015.
In July 2007, the city, the provincial government and the federal government announced they would be equally sharing the cost of a $36-million water treatment plant and distribution system. At the time, it was noted that the city would be on the hook for any cost overruns beyond that $36 million.
In 2009, the cost had ballooned and council was budgeting for a $43.5-million price tag. In 2010, when tenders came in, the cost had skyrocketed to around $60 million.
The city decided to go with a design-build approach to pursuing the project, as opposed to the traditional design-bid-build method, believing that having one contractor design and build the plant from the start would be a more cost-effective way to build the plant.
Accounting for the accompanying distribution system, some of which has already been built, and other costs, such as the decommissioning of the current system, Mayor Neville Greeley said the overall cost of the entire water treatment project will now be close to the $43-million mark council has budgeted for.
“This contract with Pomerleau represents an investment in the long-term prosperity of our community,” said Greeley. “The new water treatment plant will become an integral piece of our city’s infrastructure and will help ensure we are compliant with all the regulations and are meeting the expectations of our residents.”
in regards to that, you have to ask the question - "How are these out of province companies able to out bid the local guys?" You would think a local company could do a local project for less than an outsider, but clearly they cant if they continue to be out-bid. When spending taxpayers money, the bidding process is in place so the cheapest option is selected...its a shame that for whatever reason, the local guys cant out bid the outsiders and also - alot of the subtrades for Pomerleau are local companies.