The price tag for a pedestrian overpass connecting Burnaby Lake and Deer Lake over Highway 1 could rise by 20 per cent to $25.4 million.
Staff say the increase of about $4.3 million is a matter of contracts, according to a report going to council Monday.
The original contract price was never intended as the final budget, said the report.
The city selected Jacob Bros. Construction Inc. as the construction manager for the overpass project last year under a type of contract in which the construction manager is retained before the design is complete and then gives input into the design process to ensure it can be constructed to plan.
When the design is finished, the contract can then switch from a “cost plus” model, in which the contractor is paid on an actual-cost basis plus a percentage or fixed fee applied to actual costs, to a “stipulated price contract” with a fixed price for the project.
The city had asked contractors bidding on the project to include “indicative costing” for budgetary purposes, which the report said was used as an initial sum for the contract price.
Now that the design is finished, including value engineering exercises in which cheaper materials and processes are substituted to lower a project’s cost, the pricing has been “re-finalized,” according to the report.
“The final budget is now known and can replace the initial indicative number used in the setup of the original contract price,” stated the report.
The total estimated contract value is now $25.4 million, including $1.2 million in GST (public bodies can recover GST).
The city has a cost-sharing agreement for the project with the provincial and federal governments for $6.87 million.
Staff said in July the project is expected to be complete in the fourth quarter of 2025.
Council will vote on the contract increase Monday, Sept. 23.
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