Remaining credits will cover latest change order on Paradise lift station

By Mark Squibb

Paradise council has approved yet another change order for the Lift Station No. 10 construction project.
Councillor Deborah Quilty said there are two structure beams running north and south that are required to support a section of the roof. Those beams require 16 web stiffening plates, for a total of 32 stiffeners all told. Those stiffeners come at a cost of $3,054, HST included.
“In summary, the addition of the stiffeners is a change to the contract and will require a change order,” explained the councillor.
Quilty said the project’s prime consultant recommended acceptance of the change order, and noted there is still a $100,000 credit remaining from the previous change order, and the cost of this change order will be offset by the credit.
The motion was approved unanimously.
The lift station suffered a major malfunction back in 2019, and trucks were called in to trudge raw sewage from the site at a cost to the town of about $50,000 a day.
Original pre-tender estimates for construction of a new lift station came in at $12.6 million and a secondary estimate accounting for inflation came in at $16.9 million.
The actual bid, however, came in much, much higher, with the lowest bid hovering around $23.6 million. Council was left in a hard spot as the lift station has to be replaced in order to handle a major portion of the community’s sewerage.
Since approval of the project, council has been hit with change orders aplenty.
Last October, for example, council was hit with a bill for over $2.3 million in consultant fees above the contracted fee price.
Since moving ahead with the construction of a new lift station, the Town has received some $5 million in combined federal and provincial funding for the project.