Update:
Council has unanimously approved awarding the tender for a new pedestrian bridge connecting the RC Cotton Site to Scout Island.
DBA Quality Excavating, with its bid for $623,595, came in the lowest of eight bids, and city council in approving it, also said they want the pedestrian bridge to be wheelchair accessible.
Dan Colgate, with TRU Consulting, who worked with city staff to provide some engineering oversight on the project said it will be a 60-metre span truss bridge with a flat deck made of treated wood.
Originally the approaches were going to be 12 per cent grade, which are not wheelchair accessible, but he said it can be easily changed to an eight per cent grade which is what is needed to be accessible.
Coun. Jason Ryll said the city received a number of submissions from proponents and he participated in the bid process.
“Some were in the same price point, some were exceptionally up, and having said this I’d like to move ahead with the process, but for future projects like this I’d like to suggest to staff that it would be prudent for council to see the other proposals that are submitted,” Ryll said.
Coun. Scott Nelson said it has been a key project for Williams Lake that involves an instrumental part of the community — the lake head.
“We’ve undergone a significant transformation over the last couple of years and actually acquired a good portion of that land to be owned by the municipality,” Nelson said. “We are extraordinarily blessed with this project because we have a gift of close to $450,000 in grant funding.”
Original story:
Construction of a pedestrian bridge from the RC Cotton Site across to Scout Island could begin as early as July 15.
City staff is recommending city council approve awarding the tender for the bridge to DBA Quality Excavating in the amount of $623,595, excluding GST.
The tender report is on the agenda for Tuesday’s regular council meeting.
“It has come in above budget so we are going to have to figure out what we are going to do to proceed,” Mayor Walt Cobb said as the project budget that may be applied in part or in total to the bridge is $580,000.
In a report to council, manager of development services Leah Hartley noted the provincial share of the trail development budget is 75 per cent or $440,126. The City’s share would be $183,469, plus contingency, engineering and environmental fees incurred in 2019.
“We are going to be looking at other avenues of grants,” Cobb said.
Eight tenders were submitted for bridge project. They ranged as high as $1,149,450, with DBA Quality Excavating’s being the lowest bid at $623,595.
Earlier in June, council awarded the contract to MH King Excavating Ltd. for building a waterfront trail at the RC Cotton Site.
Read more: RC Cotton Path tender awarded
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