Callander’s Swale Street reconstruction won’t be completed this year.
Work won’t even begin this year, as council deemed it best to postpone the project until next spring. The design and drafting plans have yet to be completed for the $1.45 million project, and even if those come in soon, the project will have to go to tender, and this late in the year, council would be “held over a barrel,” noted Councillor Jody Carr, “to take whatever price they give us.”
Even if someone took the tender, odds are high the work wouldn’t be complete by winter, and the town would be left with a gravel road to plow all winter.
Delaying the project until spring ensures “there will not be a rush on the design and the engineering” plans, Carr said.
This past April, Tulloch Engineers were appointed to take on the design work, and at that time, expected the plans to be completed in 60 days. City staff have been in touch with the engineers and have been “assured that tender ready drawings would be ready” in August.
Once those plans arrive, the municipality has to give 30 days to post the tender. This would bring us to mid-September at the earliest, leaving little time for street reconstruction before the ground freezes.
See: First steps underway for Callander’s Swale Street fix
“It is highly doubtful that a contractor would be capable of completing the project prior to the beginning of freezing temperatures if the normal schedule is followed,” detailed Tim McKenna, Manager of Operations, in his report to council.
Waiting for spring “gives us a great window to make sure all the bumps are ironed out to get the best price for taxpayers,” Carr added.
Some of those “bumps” – besides the ones in the road – are that the street allowance isn’t a solid 20 meters across at all points. “It’s a tight fit,” McKenna said, “we’re already incorporating a sidewalk into this design, which is creating a level of difficulty” for the design.
He also mentioned that the plan is to make the road straighter, and also shave down the big hill as well, similar to what crews did on Lansdowne Street, just before the municipal dock.
With plans on hold, “we can complete the engineering” McKenna said, and “our tender documents are ready to go,” he added. “We’ll have the drawings, and we’ll just put them on the shelf for a February or March tender period and be the first ones out of the gate” for spring’s construction period.
David Briggs is a Local Journalism Initiative reporter who works out of BayToday, a publication of Village Media. The Local Journalism Initiative is funded by the Government of Canada.
