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This article was published 5/6/2019 (959 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.
City of Brandon director of utilities Alexia Stangherlin speaks at the June 4 city council meeting. (Drew May/The Brandon Sun)
Brandon City Council voted Tuesday to approve a contract worth nearly $4 million to replace water mains around the city.
The contract for $3,997,231.35 was awarded to Allen and Bolack Excavating Ltd., the only company to bid on the tender. With contingency costs, the city is setting aside $4.4 million in total for the project.
The work includes:
• Reconstructing the 400 block of 14th Street, including water main replacement, sewer main replacement, road reconstruction, curb and gutter and sidewalk replacement.
• Replacing the water main on the 1500 to 1600 blocks of 22nd Street.
• Replacing the water main on McDonald Avenue between 27th Street and 31st Street, including new curbs, gutters and sidewalks on the north side of McDonald Avenue.
• Replacing the water main, sewer and storm sewer on McDonald Avenue/ Stickney Avenue between 20th Street North and 17th Street North.
City of Brandon infrastructure manager Aaron Kaluzniak said in an interview that city water mains are routinely replaced when they are old or in poor condition. Newer ones are made out of plastic, while the old water mains are often made out of cast iron or cement.
Construction will be "fairly disruptive" to homeowners while work is ongoing, but the city will try to keep people up to date with the work outside their homes.
"There’s going to be some three-metre-deep excavation," Kaluzniak said. "We’re also going to replace the water services from the main all the way out to the property line, so it will be fairly disruptive while the work is going on for the blocks we’re replacing."
During the meeting, Coun. Kris Desjarlais (Rosser) asked whether any trees would have to come down as part of the work. Alexia Stangherlin, the city’s director of utilities, said some trees will likely have to come down, but the city will try to save as many as possible. The number of trees will depend on how the contractor carries out the work.
Coun. Jan Chaboyer (Green Acres) raised the fact that only one company bid on the project. Stangherlin said the bid came in under budget and enough time was allowed on the tender for multiple companies to bid. She said it’s difficult how many companies will bid on large infrastructure projects.
"Do we think we’re getting value for money? We do. We know these are difficult projects," Stangherlin said.
Kaluzniak said the city is replacing slightly more water mains than usual this year, but the amount varies each year.
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