Lift Station construction costs Steinbach more than expected

Steinbach City Council awarded the contract for improvements to Lift Station #2 at Tuesday’s council meeting. 

It has been the City’s experience since late 2022 that actual project bid prices for a variety of projects have exceeded budgeted amounts. 

This is due to labor and material costs having increased substantially more than anticipated due to higher than expected inflation and general market conditions. 

Tenders for the Lift Station #2 project closed September 8th with two bids received.  

Council awarded the contract to Penn-co Construction Canada, being the low bid, for $1,996,642. 

The low bid along with the design and engineering costs results in total project costs that exceed the previously approved budget by approximately $250,000. 

Council authorized that additional funding of $250,000 from the Utility Replacement Reserve Fund be allocated to the project. 

Councillor Michael Zwaagstra says this is an important project and Lift Station #2 needs these upgrades. 

“With the impact of inflation, we see that many of our projects are coming in over budget. In this case here, the $2 million of it will be covered by a debt issue and then the remainder $250,000 will be using our utility reserve, but it's important that the project go ahead.” 

Councillor Jac Siemens says there is a lot of work to be done and it’s important to move forward with this project. 

“This lift station is an important piece to much larger project so that we can allow subdivisions to go ahead on the East side of Steinbach as well as provide better flows through the city.” 

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