BARRHEAD - The County of Barrhead is upgrading its heavy equipment fleet.
At their Aug.20 meeting, councillors approved the purchase of a new bulldozer and motor grader for over $851,000.
The first purchase was a 2025 Caterpillar D2 from Finning Canada for $277,173. It replaces a 2019 unit scheduled to be swapped out in May 2025 when the new unit arrives. The county will receive $95,000 from Finning Canada as a trade-in.
Infrastructure director Ken Hove said the municipality received three bids through the Sourcewell Purchasing Program, facilitated by Rural Municipalities of Alberta (RMA), which allows municipalities to receive governmental pricing without each municipality to go through the whole public tender process.
The other two bids were from SMS Equipment, $294,250 for a 2025 Komatsu, and Brandt Tractor, $298,000 for a 2024 John Deere model. SMS and Brandt also offered trade-in value rebates at $105,000 and $95,000, respectively.
Brant and SMS offered guaranteed trade-ins for their units of $100,000 and $130,500, respectively, while Finning offered a $102,000 buyback for its model.
"[Public works reviewed] the quotations for completeness and to ensure the required specifications were met," he said.
Hove added they evaluated the bids, giving the units a score based on price, machine and warranty specifications, past service provided, operator feedback, resale value and cost of ownership based on pricing.
In the end, Finning Canada came out on top in the county's scoring, followed by SMS Equipment Ltd. and Brandt Tractor.
Hove noted that, when everything is said and done, the bulldozer's replacement cost will be slightly higher than what was estimated in the 10-year capital plan by just over $2,000.
Coun. Paul Properzi asked if they would be better off selling the retiring unit privately through an auction house rather than taking the trade, as the county has recently done with some of its other heavy equipment retiring assets.
"I don't know if it would be," Hove replied. "I think we are getting pretty good value for the machine."
Motor grader
The second purchase, also from Finning Canada, was a 2025 Caterpillar 150 AWD for $574,500. Council, as part of the same motion, also authorized the county to trade in the retiring unit, a 2019 Caterpillar 140M3 motor grader to Finning Canada for $305,000. The units are expected to be swapped in the spring of 2025.
Hove noted the new motor grader includes a 12-foot snowing and a rear ripper.
Like the bulldozer, the municipality asked for bids through the Sourcewell program and received one other bid from Brandt Tractor at $663,500 for a 2025 John Deere 772GP.
Barry Kerton, TownandCountryToday.com
