Issues with groundwater and organic material found in the soil have further delayed construction of an affordable housing project on London Road in Sarnia and increased its cost.
Tea 24-unit apartment project is being built for Lambton County next to its Maxwell Park Place affordable housing building for seniors on the former site of Marshall Gowland Manor long-term care home.
Construction began in 2022 and the cost was originally estimated at $6.1 million.
It’s the first modular construction project for the county with pre-fabricated modules assembled at a factory in the Toronto area.
Earlier estimates were the project would be completed in September 2022 but that was moved to March 2023 because of construction delays.
They included the unexpected discovery of water and power lines while the foundation was being dug. Earlier delays increased the estimated cost of the project to $6.6 million and a recent report by the county’s housing services department says the estimate has now grown to $7 million.
“This increase is related to the foundation issues experienced on the project in addition to project management cost incurred due to the delay in the expected occupancy date,” the report says.
Melisa Johnson, acting manager of housing services for the county, said that when a soil report was being prepared for the site, testing “identified some trace amounts of organic material but nothing overly concerning.”
“When they started the excavation work, that’s when they found pockets of organic materials that did require a re-designing of the engineering structure,” she said.
Construction is now expected to be completed by the end of 2023.
Work on the foundation is expected to begin again when weather permits and take about one month to complete, the report says.
Work at the factory on the modules paused in the fall because of the foundation delays but has resumed.
“We’re hoping at this point they’re going to be completed by the end of May,” Johnson said.
She said 28 of the 54 modules have been built and work continues to complete the rest.
“They have 100 per cent of the factory capacity dedicated to us at this time so they are progressing fairly quickly.”
Several of the completed modules have already been delivered to a secondary site owned by the county to be stored locally until the foundation work is completed and they can be trucked to the building site and lifted into place by a crane.
“My understanding is that they can place a substantial amount of modules a day,” Johnson said.
“Within a week, or maybe a little bit more, we should expect to go from just a foundation to having all modules on site and stacked.”
The county received $3.1 million from the provincial and federal governments to help pay for the project.
Its tenants will pay 80 per cent of market rent levels set by the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation and have access to community rooms and other amenities at Maxwell Park Place – a 57-unit affordable apartment building the county opened in 2011.
Like Maxwell Park Place, apartments in the extension will be for seniors and tenants eligible for March of Dimes supportive housing.
The report says March of Dimes officials continues to talk with the Ontario Health Team about funding for supportive housing services for tenants of the six barrier-free units.
A separate report says renovations of a Devine Street duplex the county’s housing services purchased in November should be completed by the end of May.
The renovations will create two one-bedroom housing units and the housing services department is asking Lambton County council to designate them as smoke-free. That request is expected to be considered when council meets Wednesday.
The $500,000 cost of the purchase and renovations on Devine Street is being funded by $375,000 from the province, with the balance from the county’s affordable housing reserve.
The county, which currently owns and operates 830 units, has said it wants to create an additional 75 affordable housing units by 2024.
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