Tender being prepared for M.D. of Taber chip seal Range Road 16-5 project

By Cole Parkinson
Vauxhall Advance
cparkinson@tabertimes.com

The Municipal District of Taber is preparing to tender out a soil-cement/chip seal project on Range Road 16-5.

During M.D. council’s regular meeting held on April 28, councillors got an update on how far along the project was.

The project is an approved capital project for the 2020 year and consists of 1.6 kilometres of soil-cement and double chip seal on Range Road 16-5, south of Township Road 13-0 and 1.2 kilometres of single-chip seal on Township Road 13-1A, east of the town of Vauxhall.

“(This) includes Road Range 16-5 soil cement and double chip seal for one mile south of Township Road 13-0, that’s just southwest of the town of Vauxhall and runs to the King Arthur’s Resort,” explained Craig Pittman, director of infrastructure. “The original estimate cost was $470,000. Finance and I put out a Federal Gas Tax application in the amount of $570,000. The engineer’s estimate is slightly higher than that at ($622,391) which includes a 10 per cent contingency. I feel this estimate is conservative and I expect the tender bids to come in within our $575,000 gas tax. The risk we take if it doesn’t is, we would have to fund the remainder of that out of our own pocket.”

While administration was ready to put this project to public tender, they also stated the project had seen delays due to the global pandemic.

“With this project, the ask today is to put this project to public tender. This one has been slightly delayed due to COVID and some of the mixed design with the cement, they had to send it to the States to have it done because of layoffs and inability to do it here. We want to put this to public tender to be constructed. Public tender would happen the week of May 1 and construction would be completed prior to the end of October,” continued Pittman.

A motion to put the project to tender was carried unanimously.

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