Cost to repair

The contract for the Atlantic Avenue Sewage Treatment Plant never went to the public market because the city needed to act quickly, says the city’s infrastructure and operations manager.

Council passed a recommendation from administration to keep the city under a state of emergency at Monday night’s meeting. The state was declared on May 28 last year following the massive flooding disaster that impacted thousands of residents.

Administration requested the continuation of the state of emergency so that the contractor could continue with repairs to the plant.
But the contract for the plant never went to the public market and instead went straight to the private sector.

Darrell Matson, the city’s infrastructure and operations manager, said the reason why they didn’t send the tender out to the public was because they needed to act quickly.

Matson said it was an exception given the circumstances.

“Our procurement bylaws do take into account that administration needs that discretion in events like the one we saw on May 28,” he said. “It was done under the city’s procurement bylaw under the emergency procurement, which means we needed a contractor in a very short amount of time and did not have the time to issue contract documents, contracts, specifications and then go to the market place.”

Matson also clarified how much it will actually cost to repair the plant.

He said the cost breaks down two ways -- portions of the plant that were damaged in the flood will cost about $26 million. On top of that is another $5 million for additional work over the next 24 months.

The repairs are expected to be finished by 2015.