Paradise Evergreen Village engineering costs nearly doubled

By Mark Squibb
November 3, 2023 Edition

The Town of Paradise will pay nearly double the engineering fees initially agreed upon for Phase 1 of the upgrades to Evergreen Village.

The decision to approve the extra costs was made at last week’s public council meeting.

The first of the two change orders was for additional inspection and administration fees payable to EXP Services Inc., in the amount of $75,800, HST included.

Councillor Deborah Quilty said the original cost estimate was based on on a project duration of 125 working days, but that the actual number of working days has exceeded that.

“Construction has been slow at times primarily due to the various utilities — Newfoundland Power of course, Bell, and Rogers— present in the work area,” said Quilty, noting that work will continue well into 2024.

The additional fees are based on an additional 93 working days.

Council also approved a change order for additional design services for trailer connections, also payable to EXP Services Inc.

“Connecting the existing trailers to the new sanitary and watermain in the roadway is proving challenging,” said Quilty. “Based on the current design, the intention is to fully abandon the existing services and connect the trailers via new service connections from the trailer to the new mains. Once exploratory work started on private property, it was determined that tying the new services directly into the trailers is difficult, if not impossible, due to the location of the service entrance.”
Quilty said the cost of the additional administration is $46,609, including HST.

The Town awarded the engineering services contract for Phase I back in March of 2021 to EXP Services at a cost of $178,385. That contract, due to change orders such as the two approved last week, has ballooned to $326,119.

There was no discussion of the change orders, except that both Mayor Dan Bobbett and councillor Quilty noted that the work has to be done.

The project is expected to take several years to complete, with work being planned over five Phases. Once completed, residents will have a better and more reliable water and sewer service from the upgraded infrastructure.

The Town received funding from a federal program to complete Phase I of the upgrades.

The initial construction cost was quoted at $3.1 million with the feds covering 40 per cent, the Province 30 per cent, and the remaining 30 percent, or $847,492, falling to the town.

The Town awarded that contract to Maher’s Contracting Limited in the amount of $3.33 million, including HST in June of 2022.

Typically, the responsibility for paying project overruns, such as the $200,000 difference between the initial cost estimate and the actual contract cost, falls to the Town.

The Shoreline asked Town staff to clarify whether this was the case with this project but did not receive a response.