City prepares to fix north's third-worst road. Already $2.5 million over budget

Just days after Bay Street was declared Northern Ontario's third-worst road hideosity, Sault Ste. Marie City Council will be asked Monday to award a $6.8-million contract to fix it.

The job is expected to go to Pioneer Construction Inc. of Sault Ste. Marie, the only company that submitted a tender.

Bay Street will be closed from June 4 to Oct. 31 from Andrew Street to Pim to accommodate the work.

The good news is that, thanks to some old-fashioned haggling by city officials and their engineering consultant, the long-awaited Bay Street reconstruction will cost $1.8 million less than the $8.6-million bid originally tendered by Pioneer.

The bad news is that the reduced price is still $2.5 million over the city's original budget estimate.

The original estimate was for partial reconstruction of Bay Street and conversion to two lanes with a multi-use trail.

But City Council decided to upscale the contract to include enhanced landscaping, pedestrian lighting, bus shelters, bike racks, drinking fountains and trash receptacles. 

The pre-tender estimate for the hopped-up project was $7.4 million.

"The project includes the partial reconstruction and resurfacing of Bay Street from Andrew Street to Pim Street, including reducing the number of lanes on Bay Street from four lanes to two lanes as well as provide significant streetscape improvements through the entire length of the project," says Carl Rumiel, the city's manager of design and transportation engineering.

To bring Pioneer's $8.6 million bid closer to available funds, the city's engineering division and Kreslin Engineering agreed with Pioneer Construction to delete the following items:

• landscaped parkettes at Russ Ramsay Way and East Street
• optional upgrades to pedestrian trail lighting systems
• unit pavers in the boulevard (replace with concrete)
• concrete curb around planters
• reduce depth of planting bed soil

Councillors will be asked next week to sole-source needed electrical relocations and street lighting upgrades to PUC Services, and to redirect funds originally allocated from the 2019 gas tax funds and resurfacing projects to the Bay Street project.

"The downtown initiative project, which is not shovel ready, will be brought to council at a future meeting," Rumiel says in a report to Mayor Provenzano and city councillors.

"When the miscellaneous paving contract is brought to council to be awarded, staff will recommend which roads will be completed in 2019 and which will be deferred."

Monday's City Council meeting will be livestreamed on SooToday starting at 4:30 p.m.