Surrey councilors question rising costs for major community projects – Peace Arch News

Three Surrey councilors asked city staff at Monday night’s council meeting to explain why costs have risen for two major community projects, Cloverdale Sport and Ice Complex and Newton Community Centre.

The board has increased the spending authority limit for its contract with Taylor Kurtz Architecture + Design Inc., in association with Rounthwaite, Dick and Hadley Architects Inc. from $1,502,311.65, to $2,629,066.65 from $1,126,755 for the Cloverdale Sport and Ice Complex and revised the allowable spending limit to $2,900,000.

The council also on Monday awarded Crown Contracting Limited $1,370,738.99 for facade work at the Cloverdale Sports and Ice Complex and set the spending cap at $1,507,800. This includes roadwork on 177B Street between 62nd and 64th Avenue and improvements to 64th Avenue, including pedestrian, bicycle and vehicular access to the complex.

Com. Linda Annis noted that bids ranged from $1.37 million to $2.1 million and asked city staff if the same materials and specifications were the same and “why there was such a discrepancy.” He was told that they all involved the same scope of work, the same means, methods and materials.

Com. Jack Hundial asked for a reason for the increased cost of the Cloverdale and Newton projects. He was told that in the case of the Cloverdale project, it was because adding a swimming pool requires a more complicated design.

Com. Brenda Locke said she “fully” understands that changing the size of the pool creates “challenges”, but asked what had been reduced in the design. City manager Vincent Lalonde replied that he would not present this as a reduction in scope “because the budget and the scope have almost doubled, but what has changed is the priority on the elements to be built under the first contract”.

He said the city originally planned to build a library, cultural center, community center and swimming pool “on a much smaller scale.”

“The council has decided to build the full-size 10-lane Olympic swimming pool,” he said. “The reach is certainly much greater.”

Council has also increased the scope of work for the Newton Community Center design and construction administration services and increased the authorized expenditure limit to $7,900,000 (including GST and contingencies). A business report also recommended that the spending authority limit for the city’s contract with TKA+D Architecture + Design Inc., in association with MacLennan Jaunkalns Miller Architects Ltd., be increased by $2,744,630.99 $7,101,700.49 (GST included) from $4,357,069.50 for the Newton community center project.

Locke asked staff to explain what is driving the cost changes from the 2018-19 plan to the current plan. Lalonde replied that the price of steel had increased “significantly”.

“I think that’s about $5 million of the additional cost,” he told the board. “And the rest is just a more general construction escalation. Of course, every year the construction costs more and more. This is not uncommon with anything we build; basically, the longer we wait, the more it costs to build.

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