Westlock is two steps closer to a new water reservoir as town council accepted a tender for construction of the $6-million-plus project and passed a borrowing bylaw to help pay for part of it.
At its Feb. 26 meeting, council awarded Pomerleau Inc. a $4.41 million contract to expand the reservoir and demolish the Eastglen Water Tower. Pomerleau’s was the lowest of the seven bids received — five were relatively close, but Pomerleau’s included a completion time of 230 days.
“We were very happy, not only that we had that many bidders but that we had that level of qualified bidders,” said interim CAO Simone Wyley, adding the time to completion figure from Pomerleau was particularly appealing because of the timeline set out by the province.
Although the tender is $4.41 million, there are engineering services, material testing and utility servicing and relocations not included.
The total project has a $6.33 million price tag, with $3.14 million coming from the Clean Water and Wastewater Fund, a federal grant, $1.7 million from the town’s capital reserves and $284,600 coming from the Westlock Regional Water Service Commission. The remaining $1.2 million will be borrowed by the municipality.
The town is still seeking an extension for the project but as it stands the deadline for completion is still March 2019.
“We do still have a request in for an extension to that deadline but wanting to be responsible in case we don’t get it, we were happy with the number of construction days,” said Wyley.
Mayor Ralph Leriger said he expects construction to begin in the spring.
“I expect they’ll break ground as soon as they are able to,” he said. “We’ve awarded the tender and the project needs to reach substantial completion by the end of March 2019 so as soon as the weather cooperates we expect that they’ll get busy at it.”
