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Industrial park project gets go ahead

Posted on August 5, 2015 by Taber Times

By Trevor Busch
Taber Times
tbusch@tabertimes.com

Shovels will soon be hitting the ground for the Town of Taber’s new industrial park development in the community’s northeast.

At a July 22 special meeting, town council voted unanimously (6-0) to award the Eureka Industrial Park (Phase 3A) Site Grading and Deep Underground Utilities tender to Ground Tech Enterprises Inc. for $2,997,092.18. Mayor Henk De Vlieger declared a pecuniary interest and exited council chambers for the duration of the discussion and vote.

“We had a good tender, the two top were within five per cent of each other,” said public works director Gary Scherer.

“Ground Tech was the lowest at just under $3 million, and the highest was MJB at $4.8 million.”

The Town of Taber approved a proposed concept plan for the SE1/4 8-10-16-W4M, which was reviewed and amended to provide for a fully serviced industrial park, minimizing initial servicing and ongoing municipal maintenance costs. The layout of the proposed concept plan ensured a phased development based upon the logical extension of servicing. There will be a mix of lot sizes within the industrial park, providing flexibility that will allow lots to be consolidated for large-scale industries.

“This is the underground work for the first phase,” said Scherer. “This is an expensive phase — you’ve got the main sanitary line coming in the area, and then across the highway to the Wildrose area. You’re extending the waterline up 64th Avenue, and extending it actually further west into the fire hall’s lot. Eventually it will be completely looped, but this is all we can afford at this time. The storm design for this area will hold more than a ‘one in a hundred’. There isn’t a lot of pipe in the ground — most of this will be surface to start — but eventually we will have storm pipes going out to the storm ponds.”

The Eureka Industrial Park (Phase 3A) project includes stripping and stockpiling topsoil, waste excavation, lot grading, storm ponds and pipeline, water line, hydrants, water services, water valves, sanitary sewer, sanitary services, curb and gutter, granular base course, and a first layer of asphalt.

Extra work was integrated into the contract which would be part of the surface works tender and highway tender.

“It just needs to be done,” said Coun. Randy Sparks. “That’s the bottom line. We need to get this thing started. People will see the Town of Taber is interested in having individuals out in the industrial, and this is a start.”

On July 20, a total of eight tenders were submitted, consisting of Ground Tech Enterprises ($2,997,092.18), Western Civil ($3,139,680.40), Porter Tanner Associates Inc. ($3,728,545.59), Sustainable Developments ($3,823,471.87), Kelsey Pipelines Ltd. (revised $4,095,702.19), MJB Enterprises Ltd. ($4,828,919.87), BYZ Construction Inc. (ruled invalid), and Kelsey Pipelines Ltd. (ruled invalid).

“It’s nice to see that our town is growing,” said Coun. Rick Popadynetz. “We’ve sold all of our industrial lots, and we need to start getting new industrial lots. I’m just very impressed that we’re a town in Alberta that’s growing, when every other town is starting to set back and slow down. It’s really good to see the growth rate in our community, and how fast we’re growing.”

The total cost for the Eureka Industrial Park (Phase 3A) project, including engineering, will be $3,121,400 (exclusive of GST). According to Scherer, the project could be completed by the end of the year, but may extend into 2016.

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