County of Minburn Awards Tender for Range Road 143 Rebuilding Project

County of Minburn Awards Tender for Range Road 143 Rebuilding Project

Michelle Pinon - News Advertiser

The County of Minburn council held a special meeting on May 10 to discuss the awarding of tender for the rebuilding of Range Road 143.

County of Minburn Chief Administrative Officer Brent Williams said the decision was made in consultation with engineers and the municipality’s lawyers. A total of 13 tenders were accepted and council unanimously selected Road To Rail Construction Group Inc. to complete the road rebuilding project.

The tender bid from Road To Rail came in at $1.464 million, only slightly higher than the original tender submitted by Iron Stone Services Ltd. that was withdrawn because the contractor did not meet the conditions or deadline.

County of Minburn Awards Tender for Range Road 143 Rebuilding Project 1-3. A total of 5.6 kilometres of Range Road 143 near Vegreville will be rebuilt this summer.

(Michelle Pinon/Photo)

Williams said when tenders are submitted they must provide a secure non-refundable bid bond. Essentially, a bid bond is the general contractor’s proof that they are able to complete the project for the set amount. In this case, it was 10 percent of the value of the bid, which equals $130,000. That amount was put towards the additional cost of the successful bid, so the county was only left with paying the difference of $4,500.

Construction on the project is expected to begin the first week of July. Williams said it will be a seven to eight week project.

The County of Minburn is partnering with GrainsConnect Canada Corporation and the Province of Alberta to rebuild 5.6 kilometres of Range Road 143 from Hwy 631 south to the railroad crossing on Range Road 143.

Approximately, half of the project is paid for by the provincial government through its Strategic Transportation Infrastructure Program grant funding stream.