The green light has now been given for site prep work for a new arena in Quesnel.
Council has unanimously endorsed a decision made by the North Cariboo Joint Planning Committee to have the city’s public works department relocate all of the utility mainlines and provide services to the new facility.
This is necessary because the new structure will be built over existing water, sewer and stormwater mainlines.
Director of Infrastructure and Capital Works Ken Coombs says there are several advantages to having the work done in-house rather than have it as part of the general bid package.
Coombs says it will not only shorten the construction timeline for the overall project in the spring as they would do the work now before the ground freezes but it will also likely be less expensive…
“Relocating existing utilities is very time-consuming work with a lot of unknown conditions and the result is general contractors either put in a very high estimate for this portion of the work or once they get into it realize that there are extra works involved.”
Coombs says another reason for doing this work in-house is that the City has a utilities crew that specializes in this type of work.
He says the estimated cost is $294,460.
That amount includes a 15 percent contingency and 15 percent for administration and supervision from the City.
The money will come out of the North Cariboo Parks and Recreation budget.
(Files from George Henderson)
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