Bids for two community hubs overbudget
Hamilton-Wentworth District School Board to re-tender Beverly, Greensville projects
The timelines for new elementary school and community hub projects in Rockton and Greensville are being pushed back slightly after bids for the work came in significantly overbudget.
After being put to tender in June, the projects at the Beverly Community Centre property and Greensville site had cost overruns of nearly $9 million for just the school portion of construction, said public board chair Todd White.
“In terms of those numbers, it’s a non-starter,” he said.
The school board is planning to re-tender the Beverly and Greensville projects, which came in around 35 and 55 per cent overbudget, respectively, White said.
For the Beverly location off Highway 8, the new tender is likely to go out the first or second week of September. The board will proceed with the school tender alone, and the city can complete the community centre after the fact, he said. Staff remain hopeful shovels will still be in the ground this fall and the school will open between 12 and 16 months later.
But for the Greensville project, which includes a new kindergarten to Grade 8 school, a City of Hamilton community centre, a Hamilton Public Library location and a daycare, an early spring construction date seems more likely, said White.
The board isn’t able to proceed with its own tender for that site as the city’s footprint is nearly 25 per cent, he added.
Over the coming weeks, the board will explore next steps with the larger Greensville project, which will likely include conversations with construction industry representatives and a possible re-evaluation of the budget to see if savings could arise from minor changes like using different interior materials, he said.
He attributed the cost overruns to several factors, including a lack of interest from contractors, using the city’s tendering process that has different pre-qualification requirements, and market conditions due to U.S. tariffs.
Earlier this month, Graham Cubitt, director of projects and development at Indwell, told The Spectator the cost of one of its projects had jumped by more than $300,000 because of escalating steel costs.
The American tariffs went into effect June 1, and Canadian countermeasures on steel, aluminum and other products kicked in July 1. But steel prices started rising before this as U.S. President Donald Trump made threats about bringing in tariffs.
Despite the bumps in the road, White assured the board and its partners remain “100 per cent committed” to both projects.
“We just need to work through some of these operational challenges,” he said. “We’ll do whatever necessary to complete these projects.”
White noted there are extra challenges to developing community hubs due to a lack of existing policies and the involvement of a number of partners.
Another board project — the new Nora Frances Henderson Secondary School — is moving ahead and is scheduled to open during the 2019-20 school year. The tender process for the project near Upper Sherman Avenue and Rymal Road East is complete, and the bid has been awarded, the board said in a news release. Shovels are expected to be in the ground this fall on the $33.8-million project, which was originally slated to open in 2015.