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Paving crews are slated to be back at work on Pender Harbour’s Francis Peninsula Road in July. They will be finishing road repairs related to the SCRD’s south Pender watermain replacement project.
At its June 27 meeting, the SCRD Board approved an additional $188,680 to complete this work. This increases total costs for this project to over $2 million. In April, 2017 the board authorized the construction based on a budget of $1.65 million.
BA Blacktop’s pavement milling machine sits idle on Francis Peninsula Road awaiting shuffling of funds in the project budget the SCRD adopted only two months ago. The paving is intended to proceed this month. Connie Jordison photo
The work began in October,2018. More blasting and ground disturbance than anticipated was needed to install the watermain. This caused damage to the road. In March of this year, the board authorized an additional $200,000 to the project. Just over half of those funds were taken from the budget of a similar SCRD project in north Pender Harbour, along Garden Bay and Claydon Roads, resulting in work in that area being reduced.
The SCRD received a Clean Water and Wastewater Fund Grant of just under $1.37 million for the south Pender project. The expanded budget for this work will also use money from reserves in place for the south Pender water system. Of the extra, $395,000 will come from the system’s capital reserves and $189,000 from operating reserves.
Paving of 700 metres of half lane, and 1.5 kilometres of full lane surfaces on Francis Peninsula Road is planned for. Contractor BA Blacktop completed approximately 1.1 kilometers of single lane paving before the project ran into financial difficulties a second time.
Cold and snowy weather conditions during the winter of 2018/19 delayed construction. When the first budget increase was provided, SCRD staff indicated the project would be completed in June. They now estimate the work will be done in July.
The second budget increase was recommended to the board by its infrastructure services committee on June 20. At that meeting, Area A Director Leonard Lee said, “there was about a 14-per-cent cost overrun, which is not extravagant for a project of this size.”
Connie Jordison
