Stratford council awarded a $ 2.5-million tender for the removal of a portion of the leaky and asbestos-containing roof from the old Grand Trunk Railway repair shop in downtown Stratford to Gateman-Milloy Inc. of Kitchener – an early step in the planned redevelopment of the repair shop and surrounding property into a community hub.
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Stratford council has awarded a nearly $ 2.5-million contract for the removal of the leaky and asbestos-contaminated roof over a portion of the old Grand Trunk Railway repair shop to Kitchener’s Gateman-Milloy Inc. as part of the ongoing effort to redevelop the building and surrounding property into a community hub.
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Councilors voted to award the contract Monday to the lowest of five bidders.
“I noticed that there’s quite a difference in price between the five companies that submitted a bid,” said Coun. Danielle Ingram, referring to the $ 5-million price difference between the low and high bids and the roughly $ 1.5-million difference between the lowest and second lowest bids. “Did the other companies include travel costs and accommodations? Were they including extra work and that’s why they are so substantially higher? ”
In response, infrastructure director Taylor Crinklaw said he couldn’t provide a line-by-line breakdown of what the extra costs entailed in the higher bids but did note it’s not uncommon for a contractor to submit a competitively low bid to ensure they win the tender.
“We have spoken to Gateman-Milloy on this,” project manager Jim Archibald added. “They are a relatively local contractor, so they understand Stratford, they understand the project and they’re quite excited about doing the work. They had absolutely expressed no hesitancy to me at all in their ability to complete the job for the price. ”
Expected to be completed between January and June 2022, the work involved in this contract will include the complete removal of the leaking roof over the building’s historic steel trusses, which will involve the removal and storage of historic skylights, the removal and storage of original wooden roof planks, and the removal and disposal of all asbestos-containing felt and tar roofing, as well as the cleaning, repair and priming of the historic steel trusses and the bracing and stabilization of all salvageable trusses for possible future use.
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Through this work, the city hopes to eliminate environmental liability and safety concerns around both the asbestos roofing and the leaky and unstable roof while preserving, repairing and stabilizing all salvageable structural components.
Council also approved Monday a plan and rough timeline for the work that will proceed next year and in 2023 at the Cooper Site as part of its transformation into the Grand Trunk Community Hub, which is being guided by a 2018-endorsed master plan.
Expected to cost roughly $ 5 million – money that was put aside from the sale of the former Kiwanis Community Center and a portion of the old Stratford fairgrounds – that work includes the following:
- site servicing and internal roadway design beginning early next year;
- planning for selective building removal once the roof is removed next spring;
- the hiring of an architect in spring 2022;
- the community hub design and building removals slated for next fall / winter; and
- phase-one servicing and roadway construction and environmental remediation work in 2023.