Construction of a new home for east end public works operations will now be a two-phase approach.
On Friday, City council approved awarding a tender to 'Pronor Construction Ltd' of North Bay, for the amount of $846,553 plus HST.
'Phase 1' will be the expansion of the pre-existing structure. 'Phase 2' is focused on interior remodeling.
"By doing that, the advantage that we've encountered is that we're soliciting the expertise of people that put 'pre-eng' buildings up, versus trying to get somebody that's a general contractor, and needs to bring other resources in," said Director of Public Works and Engineering Luc Duval.
Last year, the city purchased a property at 6075 King Street in Porcupine for $1.1 million, and took ownership in March of 2016. Last August, council awarded the detailed design contract to 'William A. Scott Architect' for $110,940 plus HST.
The Tisdale Public Works building on Evans Street in South Porcupine has long been viewed as rapidly deteriorating, and in need of replacement.
Duval said the city will likely save over $100,000 by separating the two phases. The overall value for the project, as Duval reported back in 2014, is $2.8 million.
"If you put all the costs to date on engineering design, property acquisition, and this tender award, there will be slightly over $500,000 left in the budget to complete 'Phase 2," he said.
The city received five tender bids for the project ranging from the lowest end, and successful applicants 'Pronor Construction Ltd', to the high end 'Gorf Contracting' of Porcupine, which quoted $1,257,283.
Councillor Rick Dubeau questioned Duval about the timeline of the entire project.
"We were expecting to be in that building by September of last year, were we not?" he said.
"Yeah we were hoping to be doing the work through the summer, and be there in the fall. So its going to be later this year, that we hope to be in there, somewhere in September of 2017. So that's correct, yeah," replied Duval.
Councillor Rick Dubeau had questions about the lengthy process for completing the project. Andrew Autio for TimminsToday Dubeau asked if it was the environmental assessment study that has held up progress on the project.
"It did in a way that this project, actually if you do the municipal environmental assessment review, it fell in a category that when you're re-locating a public works yard, you need to do an EA (environmental assessment). And so we did that, to meet the terms of municipal environmental assessment. So yeah, it did add a little bit of time because of consultation with the public, which we did, comments received from the public, which we did, and then we craft the final decision based on that. That's correct that it was an activity that you don't normally foresee undertaking for this kind of project," said Duval.
Duval added the city got a pretty incredible deal for a relatively new building, comparing it to '20 cents on the dollar' as opposed to a completely new build.
Councillor Noella Rinaldo asked what the plans are for the old Evans Street shop.
"Its still in our possession, and it certainly can be a yard we can use to store sand and culverts, equipment and whatnot. We'd like to certainly, at some point in time, look at shrinking the site a little bit in terms of fencing, and just use what we need. Demolition of the building will be required at some point in time as well," said Duval.
The foundation of the public works shop on Evans Street has been damaged over the years by multiple flooding incidents, as well as sheer age.
Duval expects a tender to go out soon for 'Phase 2' in hopes of having the entire project completed by the end of the summer. He told Mayor Steve Black that the funds remaining should be adequate to complete interior work.
The city estimates the new facility should last 50 years. It will house all public works vehicles, equipment, and employees for the city's east end.
