Troubling. Concerning.
These are but some of the words that Jeff Yeo, the director of facilities and support services for the District of Muskoka, used to describe the current situation on cost projections regarding the Fairvern Long Term Care Home redevelopment project.
“It is absolutely troubling, and it's troubling not only for this project, but it's troubling for other projects that we are looking at from a budgetary perspective at the district, as it does impact obviously, a consideration of other projects, of our ability to accurately budget and estimate the projects. This is concerning based on what we're seeing.”
According to a report he presented to the district’s health services committee on Oct. 19, issues with the foundation excavation and placement could result in an additional $2.184 million cost over and above the $3 million estimate previously reported for the work.
In addition to the issues with the foundation matter, Yeo told the committee various tender packages, including those for electrical, plumbing, windows, roofing, mechanical and HVAC, amongst others, have come in $12.2 million over the tender control budget, originally set at $42.2 million.
“Construction and market conditions are very volatile,” he said as a reason for the high costs. “A lot of the sub-trades that are bidding on this work are not from the area, so they would have some additional overhead costs … because they have to obviously house some of their workers locally, as well as supply chain issues that are impacting each of these trades,” he said.
According to the report, the surface of the exposed bedrock resulting from excavation that has occurred on-site is significantly more variable than expected.
“The surface varies vertically and horizontally, creating a “saw-tooth” profile that changes significantly across the site … the “saw-tooth” bedrock surface profile will require additional time and material to construct forms and additional concrete to follow the profile of the bedrock surface to prepare for foundations.” the report read.
The new 160-bed Fairvern Long Term Care Home will be situated on 7.32 acres on the east side of Centre Street North, between West Road and Hanes Road in Huntsville.
Yeo said the estimated $94-million project has a targeted opening date of late 2025.
“Right now, we're not anticipating any formal change to that schedule based on what we're seeing now. But it will we need to watch it very closely because we know there's going to be extra effort to place the foundations. It will have an impact. It will push the schedule …. we're still thinking the home could open by the end of 2025,” he said.
During the health services meeting, committee chair Terry Glover asked Yeo about district’s plans to deal with the cost estimates going forward.
“I mean, if you could maybe give us a sense of comfort somehow as to how we're going to approach the coming weeks and months, because if it continues to climb and with other builds behind it, you're starting to terrify some folks over on this side of the table,” he said.
Yeo did say that district officials, along with construction project officials, are reviewing options regarding the tenders proposals, with possible savings of up to $4.3 million of the $12.2 million forecast.
He added staff are having discussions with the construction manager to try to make sure there will be no design intent of the homes and to try to achieve as many other savings that may not have been considered.
“Unfortunately, it's a very difficult project to project where this is going to go at this stage,” Yeo said.
In the end, committee passed a motion for staff to continue the foundation works with an updated project budget forecast and financing strategy to be prepared for the health services 2024 capital budget deliberations.
