WESTLOCK - Westlock County councillors have approved a $270,134.66 spend to replace an old culvert/bridge in the southwest portion of the municipality with a new, twin-culvert structure.
At their June 27 regular meeting, councillors voted 7-0 to award the 76448-23 culvert replacement tender to K-Rite Construction Ltd., the lowest of four bids the municipality received for the project — the highest came in at $449,872.50, while the average of the four bids was $350,977.50. The project is located at NW-13-59-27-W4M, along Range Road 271 between Township Roads 592 and 594.
The request for decision (RFD) from county general manager of transportation and utilities James Plain included a letter from MPA Engineering’s Kris Bosters that noted that while the “modified tender price” is roughly $78,000 higher than what they had estimated in April, cancelling it and then bundling it with other work in 2024 would not guarantee a better price.
In addition, the county has already received provincial Strategic Transportation Infrastructure Program (STIP) funding for the project, with Bosters’ letter noting that whether that grant, which covers 75 per cent of the costs, could be carried forward to 2024 or beyond “would also need to be confirmed.”
The project was previously budgeted for as part of the municipality’s capital bridge program with CAO Tony Kulbisky noting in a follow-up e-mail July 6 that a start date for the work has not been set.
“MPA is recommending we go forward with this and keeping in mind the STIP funding we applied for and did receive for this project, it’s probably advisable that we go and do it,” Plain told councillors. “Every opportunity that we have to replace a bridge structure with a culvert, that’s the favourable thing to do.”
Plain’s RFD notes that the culvert replacement tender was advertised on the Alberta Purchasing Connection website May 23 to June 13 and bids were received from Integrity Infrastructure Inc, Westcore Contracting Inc. K-Rite Construction Ltd. and Unsurpassable Construction Ltd.
The RFD goes on to note that, “K-Rite Construction Ltd has worked on numerous projects previously for Westlock County and their past performance has indicated they can complete this type of work in a satisfactory manner.”
