Change order results in savings at St. Thomas Line pump house

By Mark Squibb

It turns out two change orders that were approved for the St. Thomas Line pump station project were not needed, and a new change order will result in a credit going back into the coffers of Paradise council.
At a recent committee of the whole meeting, councillor Tommy Maher explained that two change orders for the design of new supports were not required, and that acceptance of the new change order, number 54 for the project, would result in a credit of $5,654, plus HST.
Maher said the existing forcemain configuration has the capacity to run two raw sewage pumps at a time. If, however, certain conditions are met, as many as four could run at a time. Modifications would be needed to ensure that only two of the four run until the forcemain is twinned. Olympic Construction submitted a cost estimate of $9,054, plus HST to make those modifications.
Work on the new $24 million lift station began in 2022 to replace Lift Station No. 10, which suffered a number of expensive malfunctions in the last number of years.
The project is cost shared with the federal and provincial governments to the tune of about $6 million, though the Town is on the hook for the lion’s share of the costs. Council, back in February, borrowed $8 million to help with its portion of the cost.
Construction was initially scheduled to be completed this spring. That completion date has since been pushed back to late summer.