Bridge builders ready to go
Contractor says bridge to be done by October 2012
By David Hutton, The StarPhoenixMarch 27, 2010
The firms behind the cost-saving bid for the Circle Drive South project, if it is approved Monday, will break ground next week as workers begin an aggressive construction schedule to finish the project by October 2012.
Work would begin immediately removing trees and clearing shrubs to make way for roadway. By mid-summer, workers would be in the river constructing a berm to start on the steel girder bridge, which would span the South Saskatchewan River.
The city is recommending the contract be awarded at a special meeting Monday to joint-venture Graham Construction-Flatiron Construction Corp. for a guaranteed $224-million, a price estimated to be between $30 million and $40 million under budget.
"I don't think people realize these are fixed prices," said Mayor Don Atchison.
"They've designed it and they're going to build it.
"This is a new way of doing business in the city."
The design for the six pier, steel-girder bridge is spare. The most unique part of the design is a pedestrian bridge suspended beneath the six-lane vehicular traffic deck.
"We saw this as something that was going to be sort of a limelight project for both of our companies," said Jason Rudyk, project manager for Graham-Flatiron.
"We priced it aggressively and we believe we have one of the best design teams that came up with the innovations to make the project less expensive for taxpayers."
Known as bridge experts, Calgary-based Graham Construction has a contract to build 23 overpass bridges on the North East Stoney Trail in Calgary with Flatiron. And in Edmonton, Graham is working on the northeast portion of the Anthony Henday ring road.
Flatiron, meanwhile, is perhaps best known for its work building the St. Anthony Falls Bridge on Interstate 35W in Minneapolis.
The $230-million bridge, built to replace one that collapsed in 2007, killing 13 people, carries 10 lanes of traffic on box girders borne by massive arching piers. It came in on budget and three months ahead of schedule.
In Saskatoon, a signature bridge was not called for in the requirements and would have added a significant cost to the project, Rudyk said.
"A basic bridge design reflects the type of bridge that is priced," Rudyk said. "Signature bridges cost money."
The project is cost-shared among the city, province and federal government.
City officials are working behind the scenes to see if they can apply cost savings toward other projects, such as at Circle Drive and Preston Avenue or Circle Drive and Clancy Avenue, Atchison said.
But the money won't come from the federal government's share. Ottawa will get some of its $106 million in funding back due to the savings, said Saskatoon-Blackstrap Conservative MP Lynn Yelich.
The province's funding, however, has already been cashed and could be used for other Circle Drive interchanges, Highways Ministry officials said Friday.
The city could also apply to another government infrastructure fund, the $175-million provincial-territorial base fund, to pay for other interchanges, Yelich said.
Coming in under budget means the city has the rare opportunity to expand rather than scale back a job, Atchison said.
"Everyone is not looking at everyone else and saying how are we going to downsize this now," he said.
"Now what we're talking about is expanding as opposed to contracting."
The city-run Holiday Park golf course, which was long thought to be losing two or three holes because of the proximity of the roadway, won't lose any with this design, said Graham-Flatiron's Rudyk.
A lot of preliminary work such as the demolition of the former Mitchell's Gourmet Food plant is underway, but the construction consortium is anxious to get moving themselves, he said.
"As construction people we like to hit the ground," Rudyk said.
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