(file photo/meadowlakeNOW Staff)

By Angela Brown

Multi-year project

City awards contract for disaster mitigation infrastructure project

Mar 29, 2023 | 4:30 PM

The City of Meadow Lake awarded a contract for this year on its ongoing 2023 East Side Infrastructure (Disaster Mitigation and Adaptation Fund (DMAF)) and Water and Sanitary Project at its meeting this week.

According to city administration’s report, Rusway Construction Ltd. of Lloydminster, provided the low bidder, coming in at $2,089,385 (excluding taxes). This is approximately $460,000 over the city’s budgeted amount, when also factoring in PST, site inspection and engineering fees.

“In the last year and a half, we have seen global supply chain issues and inflation playing a significant role, not just in supply delays, but in increased costs,” City Manager Diana Burton stated in her report. “There are three funding sources for the 2021 DMAF Project: the City, the federal DMAF grant, and resident contributions for their own service connections.”

She said 100 per cent of the septic tank removal cost and 60 per cent of the service connection cost between the property line and the house in question would be the residents’ cost, based on council’s Feb. 8, 2021 resolution. The other 40 per cent of the service connection cost on the owner side comes from the federal government through the Disaster Mitigation and Adaptation Fund (DMAF) grant.

Council approved administration’s recommendation that the City award the 2023 East Side Infrastructure (DMAF) and Water and Sanitary Project contract to Rusway Construction Ltd., as recommended by Associated Engineering in their March 20, 2023 letter, and that the City Manager through Associated Engineering negotiate with Rusway Construction to adjust the proposed project scope of the project to bring it within budget.

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Mayor Merlin Seymour is glad to see the project continuing to move ahead.

“We awarded the tender to the same people who did it the last two years – Rusway Construction” Seymour said. “They do an awesome job for the city. So, we just awarded them for the upcoming year. We may have to do a little bit of scoping, just because of budget [restrictions], but they will be doing the work for us this year.”

The initiative for the east side of Meadow Lake for water and sewer is a 10-year project in total.

“Right now, we have water and sewer lines that are basically in the same trench, if you will,” Seymour said.

He said legalities-wise, if there were ever a break of both water and sewer lines, even though the chances of this happening are slim, there would be a contamination factor to deal with. So, the city wanted to prevent the risk of this occurring by replacing the aged lines in stages.

“We applied for some grant money,” Seymour said. “This will be the third year of the project. [It’s] to do an upgrade with the water and sewer lines. We have built a new lift station on the east side of the city as well.”

The lift station was completed in 2022.

New water and sewer lines will continue to be installed to replace the existing older ones, as part of the project. In the process, the streets will be dug up, and new water and sewer lines will be put in, so they meet code.

The project is a high priority for the city.

“It’s for flood mitigation, and [work] like that, as well,” Seymour said. “It’s all being worked into the project. We have the lake right by, water levels are high, so we just want to make sure that we’re looking after it as best as we can, to mitigate the chance of a disaster. That’s what the project is called.”

The total amount for the DMAF project over the 10 years is estimated at $20 million, with the federal government putting in funding of $8 million.

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Angela.Brown@pattisonmedia.com

On Twitter: @battlefordsnow