Is This Another Arena Cost

Here is an interesting RFP that just came out from City Hall. An engineer suggested to me that this was the first City call for consultant bids on any road/bridge project in over 6 months. Strange, why wasn't it done in-house rather than farming it out to outsiders.

Add the cost of the consultants and the construction costs to the $62M for the arena. Oh those of you who do not think it is fair to do so should be reminded what the Windsor Star Editorial fumed about the LaSalle arena and its skyrocketing costs:

• "These additional costs are significant -- $352 for every resident of the town or $1,408 for a family of four -- and, on a per capita basis, represent the equivalent of Windsor building a $160-million arena complex and overshooting the budget by more than $70 million.
  
  The costs can hardly be chalked up as unanticipated. They are not the result of escalating construction costs associated with oil or steel prices and they are costs taxpayers could more easily bear if the complex was more limited in scope. These additional costs are part and parcel of the project and, in fact, are part and parcel of any large construction project, particularly in underserviced areas.
  
  The town knew, or ought to have known, about these expenditures - - down to the dollar -- when it embarked on the project. If administrators and councillors didn't know these costs were coming, they are irresponsible planners. If they did know they were looming but persisted in perpetrating the myth of a $20-million complex, then they can charitably be described as poor communicators."

Here is an interesting question to ask which one of my readers did:

• "I think the issue here, is that 50-75% of the cost, if not more, would have been paid for by the developer of the site if it were not the city's. McHugh street would have been a residential street, and the developer of those homes would have paid 100% of that cost. So the city, by insisting on use of that site, has burdened itself with these costs."

And what do you think the cost of all of this will be. Here is a rough guess from an engineer as well:

• "1500m of roadway @ $1,750/m = $2,625,000
  200 sq m of bridge @ $2,500/m2 = $500,000
  Total construction cost = $3,125,000
  10% contingency = $312,500
  
  Typical engineering fees = 5% of construction costs for project this size and complexity (low) = $156,250
  Construction administration/inspection costs = 8% of construction costs for project this size (low) = $250,000
  
  So... all told I would guess that this work will come to about $3,843,750 or more approximately just under $4,000,000."