WELLINGTON NORTH – Due to rising construction costs, Wellington North council decided to only award parts of the work of its $1.26 million asphalt program for this summer to make it more affordable.
Previously, council deferred awarding its asphalt program to The Murray Group for $1.26 million until they figured out how much the overall cost of the Queen Street East reconstruction project in Mount Forest was going to be.
The Queen Street East reconstruction project has become significantly over budget due to inflation and global supply chain issues. The reconstruction is a major capital project for 2022 and one of council's priorities for the year.
As such, to be able to do the Queen Street East project and its asphalt program, council decided to only award parts of the work to The Murray Group.
At the virtual council meeting Monday, council awarded the tender for a project total cost of $219,585, instead of the overall cost of $1.26 million.
“When you look at the asphalt program for 2022 and Queen Street East, the recommendation that’s before you, cuts the asphalt program from what we set out to accomplish. What we’re seeing is significant price increases over what we expected,” explained Matthew Aston, township’s director of operations, during the meeting.
“The asphalt program came 50 per cent over, the reconstruction project came 40 per cent over. Queen Street East has provincial funding tied to it that is limited as far as an upper limit, I think is $1.42 million that the province is going to put in. This reconstruction is the priority because we have that funding in.”
In this year’s budget, $930,500 is allotted for nine asphalt projects. The least expensive tender for those projects was submitted by Murray Group Ltd. with a bid of $1.29 million–a 50 per cent increase from the township’s budget.
Asphalt cement (AC), which is a significant driver of asphalt costs, has increased from $617.25
per tonne in February 2021 to $917.50 per tonne in February 2022–a 48.6 per cent spike since last year.
Council approved only doing the least expensive work for its asphalt program which are:
- London Road North, specifically the Birmingham right-of-way to Durham Street East
- Albert Street which is near Oakview Crescent
- Birmingham Street East from Egremont Street North to Church Street North
- Church Street North fromBirmingham Street East to Durham Street East
- Durham Street East from Church Street North to London Road North
- Preston Street South, specifically south of Smith Street
The remaining roads that will not be repaved are Sideroad 5 West from the landfill entrance west to Concession Road 9; Line 12 from County Road 14 to County Road 16; Sideroad 7 East, specifically Highway 6 and Concession Road 2. These roads are the most expensive parts of the project, and will be repaved in 2023.
“I would support the recommendation presented. We’ve been doing a great job at keeping the roads safer and in good order,” said Mayor Andy Lennox.
“You go to many municipalities and I’ve seen more deterioration than what we’ve been experiencing. Hopefully a year from now we can come back at this with more certainty but I think this is the right course of action at this time.”
