Whitehorse Daily Star

Grader cost comes in under-budget

The city could spend more than $354,000 on a new road grader.

By Stephanie Waddell on February 22, 2017

The city could spend more than $354,000 on a new road grader.

That would happen if council approves awarding the contract to the only company to bid on the contract to supply the piece of heavy equipment.

Finning Canada submitted the lone bid on the supply for $354,112 for the grader, coming in $5,888 under the $360,000 budget.

“The approved capital plan for 2017 includes funding for one motor grader, equipped with a snow wing,” Richard Graham, the city’s manager of operations, stated in a report to council.

“This piece of equipment is a replacement unit for an aging piece of the city’s fleet that is due to be replaced under the city’s vehicle and equipment replacement administrative directive.”

The sole bid from Finning met all the specification and terms of the bid.

“Awarding this tender to Finning Canada will provide the operations department with the equipment necessary to provide both summer and winter road maintenance operations in accordance with the established policies,” he said.

“Cancelling the tender would result in the department not having the equipment needed to complete mandated service levels.”

Under questioning from Coun. Betty Irwin, Graham confirmed if the city moves forward with the purchase, once the new unit arrives, the grader being replaced would be decommissioned, then disposed of following a city policy.

Council will vote whether to award the contract next week.

Coun. Rob Fendrick was absent from Monday’s meeting.

Comments (3)

Up 0 Down 0

Contract on Feb 28, 2017 at 2:06 pm

the work out and it would cost less and create more jobs

Up 13 Down 24

Just Sayin' on Feb 22, 2017 at 4:07 pm

I am surprised they need to retire an old grader, but I suppose a large amount of idling at Mc Donald's contributed to the early demise of this machine.

Up 12 Down 16

Yellow Iron on Feb 22, 2017 at 3:12 pm

It's about time the city operators got to run a Cat so they can experience how a real grader works!

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