The huge increase in costs to the Big Dig is due to what staff deem unforeseen conditions that they say are part of every major construction project.
That was the response after Coun. Beth Prost questioned the request that eventually saw council approve an increase of $865,000 to the project's operating budget.
"I'm looking for some clarification to understand it better," she said. "The report is very clear and the analysis is laid out. I can't help but wonder how these things didn't get seen in the first place? Was there no testing of the soil and water? It's so close to the bay, would it not be expected?"
Andy Campbell, executive director of environment and infrastructure, explained it wasn't a contractor issue.
"You don't know those things until you open up the ground," he said. "Arnott Construction only bid on what we asked them to bid on."
One of the biggest ticket items is "dewatering," which was initially predicted to cost $500,000 and now is forecasted to cost an additional $356,160, according to the staff report.
"Dewatering at this rate wasn't expected," said Campbell. "We've got more water than we thought. From a risk perspective, the dewatering is at the risk of the owner.
"The other big item is the import of contaminant soil," he said, noting the cost for disposal of contaminated soil went from being nonexistent to $50,880. "It's a totally unknown when you're bidding the job. Had these issues been included in the original tender, it would have been priced accordingly."
Prost asked if these issues could have been addressed through prior studies the town could have ordered.
"You've explained it and I understand it, but it's a huge amount of money for things I would have thought we would have found quickly," she noted.
Campbell said the town could have spent more money doing preliminary studies, but it doesn't affect the price at the end of the day.
"If you put bore holes every 25 meters, you can have different conditions in the middle, that's what happened," he said. "We put a tender out with the best knowledge we had. The engineering up front on this project was already over a million dollars.
"We're asking for the scope change with our contractor," he added. "There's thorough review of those prices to make sure they were market rates and not unreasonable. Some projects you don't know what you get into 'til you open it up."
Coun. Jon Main tried to explain it with a historical perspective.
"Legend goes that Midland Avenue was going to be the main street of the town but high ground water and we moved out downtown one street over," he said. "We knew this was going to be an issue. We knew that the change order was going to happen. It's just dewatering is very high cost job. You have to run these pumps to get down very deep to put in this infrastructure.
"From what we're hearing things are going really well, we appreciate all the attention all the infrastructure staff and engineers are giving to this very sensitive and delicate project," added Main. "Best of luck, we don't hit anymore curveballs or surprises up the road."
Coun. Bill Gordon wanted staff to look into applying for grants so the town wouldn't have to dig any deeper into its resources.
"This may not be the last time we come back," he said. "Heaven knows what they will find when they keep on digging. What are we going to do from now until the end of this year to find a grant so we don't have to go any deeper into that piggybank?"
CAO David Denault added: "We're going to find some resources and have some dedicated resources for someone who can watch it, write it up well and make sure we get it."
