SYDNEY, N.S. — Second time, apparently, was the charm in bringing the tender for the construction of a second cruise ship berth at the port of Sydney in within budget.
The invitation for the three lowest bidders in the initial tender call to rebid on a revised project resulted in the contract being awarded to Zutphen Contractors Inc. of Southwest Mabou, for $17,274,341.12, plus tax.
With municipalities paying the full federal portion of the harmonized sales tax and about 57 per cent of the provincial tax portion, the total cost of the project with tax is just above $19 million.
The Cape Breton Regional Municipality recently had consulting engineer CBCL Ltd. redesign the berth after all tenders came in at least $4 million above the $20-million budget.
CBRM spokesperson Jillian Moore wrote in an email Monday that a startup meeting will be arranged with the contractor later this week.
Zutphen’s website notes that it was founded in 1964 and specializes in construction services throughout Nova Scotia and employs up to 200 unionized tradespeople annually.
Mayor Cecil Clarke has said he and council will have to go back to their staff to review “the timeline and the processes that led to the situation,” adding that, politically, the focus was on getting the funding for the project in place.
CBRM engineering staff have prepared a chronology of the processes involved in preparing the tender for the second berth, which Clarke said has been sent to all members of council.
The money for the project — all three levels of government are jointly funding it — was announced in January 2017. The CBRM has been told by Ottawa it will be responsible for any cost overruns. The consulting engineer contract was awarded in April 2017. The project was billed at the time of the funding announcement as being shovel-ready and the municipality's top infrastructure priority.
The first tender was issued Jan. 30 and closed May 24. It was then evaluated for almost two months when the decision was made to modify the design and re-tender.
Dist. 6 Coun. Ray Paruch has previously said he believes council should be updated on the second berth file.
“I’ll err on the side of caution with senior management on this to say that if there was something to report that they would call a meeting and bring the council up to speed,” he said Monday.
Speaking prior to The Post confirming that the tender had been awarded, Paruch said he hadn’t been aware that the second tender had closed.
“I’m not very happy with that … I think we should have been brought together and brought up to speed with what’s going on, there’s a lot of eyes on this thing,” he said.
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The new tender sets Dec. 31, 2019 as the date of substantial completion of the project, although the berth may be operational prior to that. The Cape Breton Post has asked CBRM staff to clarify when the berth is now expected to begin receiving ships. In response, staff indicated that the CBRM expects that larger vessels will be able to tie-up at the existing dock, which is also to undergo work, by May 2019 while the second berth should be operational “in the late fall of 2019,” but has not clarified that any further.
Staff indicated the revised schedule reflects both a later start date and a shorter construction schedule due to design modifications.
The CBRM has expropriated the land required for the project from a numbered company owned by North Sydney businessman Jerry Nickerson. The parties have not to date agreed on a price, and that matter is now before the Nova Scotia Utility and Review Board.
The property was formerly the site of Sydney Engineering and Dry Dock. It is located immediately to the north of the current terminal. The CBRM had been in negotiations with Nickerson for the land — it has reportedly budgeted $2 million while one report indicated Nickerson wanted $6 million.
