Centre Wellington council has awarded the work on Sideroad 19 and two other streets at the north end of Fergus to Drexler Construction Limited (Rockwood).
The low bid by that company was $3,689,443, but it was still $334,177 over the estimates council was hoping to reach.
Mayor Joanne Ross-Zuj said in an interview this week that despite the extra cost, council was actually getting some extra work.
She also noted that with a federal grant, the township will be able to afford the work, which will also include storm sewers and water lines on the sideroad and also Victoria Crescent and Burnett Court.
Those areas are only one of a dozen where the former townships created fringe developments with almost no services. The township is now responsible for overseeing their reconstruction to urban standards. “We wanted to do it right,” said Ross-Zuj, who noted that the Ministry of Environment is keeping an eye on the fringe developments, which have wells and septic systems. If anything should go wrong with those, the ministry would force the township to provide municipal services. There were three others bids, with the highest coming in $4.7-million. None of the other bids was under $4-million.
