City seeks to jump-start road work, bypass council committee

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This article was published 20/02/2018 (2250 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A Winnipeg council committee is being asked to bypass its rules on infrastructure construction contract approvals and instead allow the city’s chief administrative officer to award contracts for work that have a combined value of $83.9 million.

An administrative report says complying with city’s hall rules for committee approvals is time consuming and could jeopardize the completion of more than a dozen road projects before the end of the construction season.

“Award of a contract by a standing committee of council can take four to eight weeks,” states the report to the Feb. 27 meeting of the public works committee.

Bypassing the politicians and leaving the decision in the hands of CAO Doug McNeil means the contracts can be awarded in as little as three weeks after bids have been submitted, the report states.

The projects include completion of the downtown cycling network, and reconstruction work on McGregor Street, McPhillips Street, Empress Street, Chevrier Boulevard and Fermor Avenue.

The projects, and the funding amounts, have already been approved by city council. All that’s left to be done is to advertise the work and award the contracts.

The administration also expresses concern with city hall’s compliance with the Canada–European Union Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement, which requires construction contracts greater than $8.5 million be advertised for 30 calendar days, where previously city hall would post such items for as little as 14 days.

“The (agreement) constraints would dramatically affect the ability to deliver the work,” the report states.

The report also recommends giving the CAO the authority to approve over-expenditures on the contracts up to $5 million for each individual contract, so long as the project cost remains within the approved budget.

aldo.santin@freepress.mb.ca