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Delay in road project saves county money

Waiting a few months on tendering for a road project has paid off for Red Deer County.

Waiting a few months on tendering for a road project has paid off for Red Deer County.

A project to rebuild five kms of Township Road 360 and Range Road 263 was originally tendered last December, but the prices came in higher than projected and the project was cancelled.

However, when prices for other projects came in more in line with estimates earlier this year the county decided to re-tender the other project.

Five bids were received ranging from $2,157,638 to a low bid of $1,919,796 from M. Pidherney’s Trucking.

Marty Campbell, the county’s director of operations, said about $260,000 was saved by waiting to re-tender the project.

Campbell said a lack of grading work scheduled in Central Alberta by the province meant the county job drew more interest than usual.

“It’s a big project so it’s good to see it come in at a price like that,” he said.

The work involves rebuilding the road completely.

Additional rights-of-way were purchased on each side of the road to build it to an eight-metre-wide standard.

The county also intends to smooth out hills and low points in the road and fix sharp slopes into the ditches running alongside.

The county did find itself paying a little more than previously estimated on another project to build 800 metres of roadway on Township Rd. 362.

Council approved a low bid of $453,206 from Howitt Construction for that project. The high tender was $689,298.

Originally, the work was to happen last year but some issues with landowners getting rights-of-way held the project up. Last year, it was estimated to cost about $359,177, but since then prices have risen, although they started to come down again in recent months.

“So that was encouraging to see,” he said.

Seven bids were received so he’s confident that the county is getting a good price.

Roadwork is a big focus for county council. It put aside more than $8 million in the 2012 budget for paving, chip sealing and grading county roads.