Substantial work is about to hit the streets of downtown Lloydminster as work along 50 St. between 50 and 51 Ave. will take up most of the summer.
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The City of Lloydminster awarded the contract to ASL Paving Ltd. in the amount of $2,890,368.49 with a contingency of $433,555.27 at the March 23 regular council meeting.
The project will see the replacement of the water main, sewer main and more to address the city’s aging infrastructure.
“Due to the age, condition and capacity of existing municipal infrastructure, Administration must remove, replace and upsize this existing infrastructure, which is including, water, sanitary, sewer, storm sewer mains,” said James Rogers, senior manager of capital infrastructure, City of Lloydminster.
Work will include the installation of streetscapes and street furnishing features, including benches, trees and garbage receptacles.
The $2.89-million project also includes the addition of site occupancy days.
“The use of site occupancy days is a widely used project management technique, particularly on large-scale projects,” said Rogers. “The number of site occupancy days will be used as the baseline from which either a bonus or a penalty will be assessed to the successful contractor was provided by the contractors within their respective submissions.”
Rogers explained that administration set a daily site occupancy rate of $2,000. Under this model, the contractor earns a $2,000 bonus for every day they finish ahead of the 120-day limit, but must pay the city that same daily rate if the project runs over schedule.
“If they go over 120 days, they start to owe us $2,000 per day,” he said.
A contingency value of 15 per cent in the amount of $433,555.27 was included in the project breakdown with the contingency being used to cover both unforeseen work and bonus payments, should the contractor finish early.
Site occupancy days are not something the city uses for every project.
“We use site occupancy days for a project like this where we know the work we are doing has a direct impact on those adjacent to us,” said Rogers. “We take it as, we might have to pay a bonus, but at the same time, those that we impact will see that bonus because their street’s put back together, they can get back to business.”
Of note, the project was originally budgeted at $4.5 million and it came in at just over $3.3 million, leaving it $720,000 over budget.
“Whatever’s not spent just doesn’t get drawn from that reserve,” said Dion Pollard, city manager.
Council asked if the city had ever paid a bonus for work being completed early.
“Not that I’m aware of,” said Rogers, noting they have been paid a penalty for work taking longer.
Construction is expected to begin in spring of 2026 and is expected to be completed no later than October 2026.
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