Posted Jan 31, 2015, 1:37 PM
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No tender required on rebuild of Ancaster’s Hermitage ruins
(Ancaster News, Richard Leitner, Jan 22 2015)
The stone mason whose company has just been awarded a $460,000 contract to restore Ancaster’s crumbling Hermitage ruins says he’s optimistic the work can be completed by the end of this year.
Matt Kuhlmann said while he must first finish the restoration of the historic Barracks building on Wilson Street East, he is aiming to begin the project early this summer.
The Sulphur Springs Road ruins’ three main walls will first be dismantled stone by stone, with each marked to ensure it is put back in its original place, to allow for construction of a new foundation, he said.
It will then take about four months to rebuild the remnants of the 160-year-old, fire-destroyed mansion, a process that will include internal steel bracing to ensure the walls are secure for at least another century, he said.
Kuhlmann said Quinn Dressel Associates, a Toronto structural engineering firm that specializes in heritage projects, has reviewed the plan and found it sound.
The lone change it recommended was to use galvanized, rather than regular, steel for the bracing, he said.
“(It’s) an additional expense, but we’re happy to do that,” Kuhlmann said.
Hamilton Conservation Authority directors voted unanimously without discussion on Jan. 15 to award the restoration contract to Kuhlmann’s Rock Solid Natural Stone Masons Ltd., agreeing with a staff report recommending the project not be tendered.
The staff report said sole-sourcing contracts isn’t normally ideal, but in this case reflects that Rock Solid’s bid is well below initial estimates of $600,000 to $1 million for the work.
The bid has also generated $100,000 in private donations “that would not be available to other bidders in a formal process,” it stated.
Ancaster Councillor Lloyd Ferguson, who sits on the authority board and has championed the plan, said he wasn’t surprised by the lack of debate on awarding the contract.
“How could you discuss something that’s perfect?” he said. “It’s been saved and it’s good now for 100 years once (Kuhlmann’s) done with it.”
The city and authority are each contributing $200,000 to the rebuild, with private donations and fundraising by the authority’s charity, the Hamilton Conservation Foundation, expected to add another $200,000.
The solution will apparently mean that the Hermitage ruins stand safely without external bracing, and need not be fenced off from the public.
Read it in full here
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Last edited by thistleclub; Jan 31, 2015 at 4:19 PM.
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