We Left $275,000 On The Table In The Boundary Rd Bid

By Ben Meisner

Earlier this week L&M Engineering was awarded the design and construction management work on the Boundary Road development.

The Boundary Road expansion is estimated to cost about $28 million dollars, with the federal government contributing $7,500,000, the province $7,500,000, the private sector developers along the road $6,500,000 and the city will contribute $6,500,000.

The Boundary Rd project consists of approximately 6.8 kilometres of undivided two lane road connecting Highway 97south and Highway 16 East, also included are four intersections to facilitate future improvements to the Boeing/Gunn Rd intersection and the installation of water, sewer and storm drains.

The bids went as follows, Associated Engineering - $1,233,213.00, L&M Engineering $1,508,550.00, and Stantec Consulting with a bid of $1,796,878.73.

Now one would think that Associated would have been given the nod for the job at $1.2 million as opposed to L&M with a bid of $1.5 but it didn’t go that way.

L&M had said in their bid that they would devote 82 hundred hours to the project, while Associated would spend 6 thousand hours.

Now as the City (which looked after the bids) knows, Associated is a very large Engineering firm, quite frankly if they felt all it would take is 6,000 hours of their work, (they have never been known as a company that leaves a lot on the table) then that may be all the Engineering work that is required.

Instead, the City left $275,337.00 on the table, which is more than enough to fill a lot of pot holes in the city.

Insiders in the trade say that had the project been of a private nature, then Engineering costs  would have in all likelihood come in at about $1.1 million based on the cost of the project. That in itself raises a question of just how the bids are determined.

The matter of one of the principles of L&M Engineering  having a family member who is involved in a company which owns property in the area also raises a flag and while it is important to say that there is no suggestion of impropriety here, it does raise a concern with some taxpayers.

A much better explanation was in order by the City to explain the exact manner in which the bid was awarded, as it now stands it appears that the City rushed out of the gate without giving due diligence to the matter.

I’m Meisner and that’s one man’s opinion.

Email | Print | Facebook | Twitter | Digg | Del.icio.us