‘Deeply alarming’: Hamilton backs $34.7-million spike for trunk sewer

City councillors have backed a $34.7-million budget hike for a trunk sewer to service Hamilton's airport employment area - but not without reservations.

That's deeply alarming," Coun. Lloyd Ferguson said Wednesday about the multimillion-dollar increase.

But the worst part," Ferguson said, was that the city only received two bids for the 10-kilometre project.

And the higher of the two bids was about $100 million more, the Ancaster councillor added.

It is concerning," agreed Mike Zegarac, general manager of finance, noting other projects have been subject to escalating tenders, as well. Staff are compiling information to report back to council with respect to what may be transpiring as it relates to bid prices."

There are a few variables, including supply-chain issues, inflation and labour disruptions, he said.

In light of the sharp increase, Coun. Russ Powers asked if the Dickenson Road project could be delayed a year to see if pandemic-related pressures ease up.

I mean $34 million can be better spent either now or some other time, but is there an urgency?"

There is, suggested Susan Jacob, acting director of engineering.

The trunk sewer is a very important project" for the airport employment growth district (AEGD), which includes about 550 hectares of land slated for development.

It takes about five years to do the construction, and the re-tender, that will take an enormous time, as well," Jacob said.

Staff expect development charges will eventually cover the trunk sewer, which is to run from Highway 56 to Upper James Street along Golf Club Road and Dickenson Road.

Before Wednesday's hike, the budget that council approved for the tunnelling project was $73.6 million.

But a staff report noted that other cost-drivers were then identified, including tunnelling for stretches of pipe; additional maintenance holes; stepped-up ground- and surface-water monitoring; changes in provincial regulations for soil disposal.

The city pre-qualified four contractors to submit tenders, but this past April, only received two compliant" bids.

The lowest, from Technicore Underground Inc., was about $114 million. The other from McNally Construction Inc. was roughly $250 million.

Jacob told councillors the city is having a very hard time" securing competitive bids with stiff competition from provincial projects through Metrolinx and the Ministry of Transportation.

The city wouldn't face the enormous" price tag for a trunk sewer if it hadn't decided to develop the AEGD in the first place, Don McLean argues.

It was historically an avoidable cost," said McLean, who was among the opponents of the aerotropolis" project during an Ontario Municipal Board struggle a decade ago.

If more industrial space is needed, the city should use underutilized or empty parcels instead of building anew on greenfields and agricultural lands, said the co-founder of Citizens at City Hall.

Now we've made all these commitments. We've brought this into the urban boundary and if we're going to get anything back from it for the city, we're going to have a trunk sewer line there."

This week, council also backed other seven-figure increases: $5 million more for emergency repairs to the Woodward Avenue sewage plant, $1.5 million for Barton Street East road work and $8 million for the new provincial regulations for contaminated soil.

Teviah Moro is a reporter at The Spectator. tmoro@thespec.com