THUNDER BAY — Rehabilitation work at the Fort William Stadium will cost the City of Thunder Bay just over $4.9 million, coming in well above earlier estimates.
The work involves replacing the venue’s rubber track and artificial playing field, both of which were installed in 2010, have reached end of life, and are showing signs of wear, city staff say.
Replacement of the stadium’s scoreboard with a new, LED version is also included in the project, which staff will recommend city council award to LTL Contracting Limited on Monday.
The $4.9 million total includes HST and a $200,000 construction contingency that can only be spent with city authorization. After an HST rebate, the net cost to the city is estimated at $4.35 million.
The city won’t bear the full costs, with the Northern Ontario Heritage Fund Corporation (NOHFC) contributing $1.2 million, FedNor contributing $500,000, the Superior Secondary Schools Athletic Association (SSSAA) contributing $25,000, and Thunder Bay Minor Football chipping in $5,000.
The replacement of field lighting was removed from the contract to keep costs within budget. The stadium lights remain functional but are inefficient, staff said.
The city also removed an enhanced drainage ring separating the track and turf field that was suggested by LTL Contracting, but not requested in the tender, to trim nearly $250,000 from the contract.
LTL's tender would have cost over $5.2 million without cutting those and some other minor items, compared to the city's pre-tender estimate of $4.5 million.
City staff said general inflationary pressures across the construction industry accounted for the higher-than-anticipated costs for components, and that supports to the scoreboard including power and data feeds could not be relied upon and had to be replaced.
LTL was the only bidder on the tender, which was issued in October. The company's bid met all technical requirements, staff reported.
Correction: An earlier version of this story stated that the city initially estimated costs for rehabilitation of Fort William Stadium at $2.38 million. That detail was not correct. The city budgeted $4.5 million for the work. TBnewswatch apologizes for the error.
