The city is facing another major funding shortfall and staff is recommending dipping into its development charges reserve fund to pay for it.
The cost of installing a trunk sanitary sewer and culvert over Moffat Creek in the Southpoint Subdivision in the city's southeast corner has shot up $1.5 million over budget due to several unforeseen factors related to the quality of the soil and the depth of a sewer main.
The infrastructure serves the subdivision and land where the city's new recreation complex is being built.
Much of the cost for road and infrastructure in the area is being shared with the developer, but the city is on the hook for the crossing and the sewer main, both of which can't be completed with money budgeted in 2015.
The project was initially budgeted at $3.8 million, but that has now risen to $5.3 million, partly because bearing capacity of soils encountered within the Grand River Conservation Regulated Area are less than anticipated.
To accommodate the finding, design changes were made to the culvert’s foundation and the finished structure will now cost $726,000 more than estimates provided when the tender was awarded.
Since the trunk sanitary sewer is being installed 13 metres below the finished road grade, it is within the groundwater table and will require a deep-well system to pump water away. It alone will result in an additional $791,000 cost.
Staff say if the funding is not approved by council, construction would need to be paused until alternative funding is secured.
Such a delay would impact the city's recreation centre as the Wesley Boulevard sanitary sewer needs to be in place to service that property.
