No bids were received for the construction of the Erin wastewater treatment plant back in August and the council is now making a second attempt. On December 7th, council approved the pre-qualification of five contractors to submit bids for the project.
Ontario Construction News reports that the council previously signed two separate contracts totalling $2.5 million with WSP Canada Group Ltd. for the design and engineering of the project.
Two of the companies who were pre-qualified during the initial round, Maple Reinders Construction Ltd. and Bennett Mechanical Installations Ltd. have been pre-qualified again.
The other three companies that will be invited to submit bids are:
- North America Construction Ltd.
- Graham Construction and Engineering LP
- ASCO Construction (Toronto) Ltd.
According to Elora Fergus Today, in a media release, the town said it received six submissions from companies wanting to be pre-qualified to build the plant. Those submissions were assessed in terms of completeness, and the capability of the applicant to undertake the works as the general contractor.
The pre-qualification process was not based on the lowest cost bid and was solely based on qualitative evaluation - there were no prices included in the responses according to the town.
"We are aiming to build a modern and a technically advanced wastewater treatment facility. This tender has many strict requirements and in order to adhere to all specifications we have to evaluate every bid carefully. The process is not easy and time-consuming and we are happy to be able to move on to the next stage of the construction process."
Director of infrastructure services for Erin | Nick Colucci
Ontario Construction News states that in August the town secured $94,336,529 in infrastructure financing agreements with the development community for the construction of the Water Resource Recovery Facility.
"This is one of the largest infrastructure projects being undertaken by the town. The wastewater plant adheres to some of the most stringent regulations and we have to ensure that it is done properly and in keeping with all requirements of the approved environment assessment. We are looking forward to moving this project forward."
"This is a big win for the community. The staff has been working hard to secure these agreements that will help ease the burden of the costs of building our wastewater treatment plant on our taxpayers. As promised, developers are paying for the costs associated with the building of the wastewater treatment plant and main trunk lines, as well as an additional $7,000 per new single detached unit in Erin and $10,000 per new single detached unit in Hillsburgh, in order to help reduce overall costs to current residents."
Mayor of the town of Erin | Allan Alls
The Wellington Advertiser states that Councillor Michael Robins wanted to know what implications the last tender process would have on the new request for proposal. Colucci replied that the staff has amended the prequalification document to ensure the process was more open, in addition to reducing some of the requirements in the initial document to ensure the town receives a greater number of contractors looking at it.
He added the town's consultant had also been working on amending the tender document and drawings to respond to all the questions they received during the first tender process. He feels that they have addressed all those requirements on the new tender document and they have decided to now have a longer tender period.
According to Colucci, the schedule has been changed in the tender document and they also looked at some of the risks that were asked of the contractors to take with respect to receiving approvals.
The plant will adhere to one of the strictest effluent requirements in North America and the full build out of the plant will occur in stages over many years up until 2040.
