By KEVIN BERGER, Local Journalism Initiative
City of Martensville councillors passed a motion during their May 19 meeting to award a contract to Marathon Underground Constructions Corp. for a new pipeline connecting the City of Martensville to the City of Saskatoon’s biosolids handling facility at a cost of $17,777,026.80, including PST.
In his report to council, Director of Infrastructure and Planning Matt Gruza indicated that Martensville has been working for some time with the City of Saskatoon and the consultants Catterall and Wright on the design of a new water and wastewater connection between the two municipalities.
To put in context how long this project has been in the works, Gruza noted it pre-dated his employment at the City of Martensville and he has been at the municipality for 11 years this July.
The project is now at the point where they have tendered the construction of the pipeline between Martensville and Saskatoon’s biosolids handling facility.
As part of this process, there was a Request for Qualifications (RFQ) conducted prior to the receiving of bids in which five firms were identified as being capable of carrying out this work.
Three of the firms submitted bids ranging from the lowest bid of $17.777 million, which was sent in by Marathon, to the highest bid of $19.899 million.
Catterall and Wright evaluated all three bids based on factors like price, schedule and previous experience and recommended that Marathon’s bid be selected.
Gruza noted the 2026 capital budget allocated $30 million to the water and wastewater connection project.
Approximately $12.087 million is being provided by the provincial and federal governments; deducting that amount from the $17.777 million pipeline construction costs leaves $5.689 million left to be funded from a combination of borrowing and reserves.
It should be noted the pipeline construction is only a portion of the overall project, as detailed design is being finalized on upgrades to the Martensville lagoon and a lift station at the North 40.
Gruza indicated those items will be tendered in separate contracts once the engineering is finalized.
He noted this item technically did not have to come before council as it has already been budgeted, but because of the magnitude of the dollar value and the importance of this overall project, administration thought “it was worthwhile to bring to council for formal approval.”
Councillor Brad Blixt asked if the project cost basically came down to $18 million for the pipeline and $12 million for the lift station and lagoon.
Gruza responded that because the design for those portions of the project are still being finalized, he was hesitant to suggest what the estimated cost would be.
“It’s safe to say we will likely have to do some borrowing to cover off some of the initial portions of that project,” he said.
On a final note, a communication plan is being developed and will be shared publicly once the details of this pipeline’s construction have been determined.
This communication will co-ordinated with the RM of Corman Park, as that is where the majority of this project lies.