Missing piece to cost Paradise extra $43K

By Mark Squibb

The Town of Paradise has had to pony up nearly $40,000, less HST, because of inaccurate infrastructure drawings.

Councillor Erin Furlong brought the matter forward during the Town’s May 12 committee of the whole meeting.

Furlong explained the drawings of infrastructure already in the ground at Carberry Place, which are needed to design the connection of a new watermain, turned out to be incorrect.

The drawings had been drafted after water and sewer was installed on nearby Duff’s Crescent years ago, and were provided to the Town by the prime consultant at the time. The drawings indicated that a thrust block, commonly used as a support in pipeline systems, had been installed. But the thrust block wasn’t actually installed.

“It seems the contractor didn’t do some of the work that was required, and the prime consultant had said it was done, when it wasn’t, when they provided this information to the Town,” said Furlong. “There was a thrust block on the watermain that was not put in place, which is what made the work a little more complicated.”

The mistake wasn’t noticed until Black Diamond dug down into the ground. The thrust block was then installed by the company at a cost of $37,301, plus HST.

Councillor Glen Carew asked whether the Town was billed for the original work that was not actually completed by the previous contractor, whom council did not name.

Staff did not have the answer on hand, but both Furlong and Mayor Patrick Martin said staff should be able to get the answer within a couple of days. Carew indicated he would like to have the answer before the matter was put to a vote.

Carew also asked whether there would be any recourse given Paradise is now spending $37,000, less the HST, for work that should have been already completed.

“My thought is, are we paying twice for the same work,” said Carew. “It’s a $37,000 bill. I know it’s a big project, and this is probably small in comparison to the overall scope of the project, but the as-builts showed the thrust block, and now we’ve got to put it in, so I was wondering if there was any recourse for us.”

Chief Administrative Officer Lisa Niblock said the matter is a legal one and needs to be discussed in private.

Council agreed to discuss the legal ramifications in more detail at a later time, and for the time being agreed to move the extra cost of doing the job now to the next regular public meeting for a vote.