A RIVERLAND council will delay sealing works for two roads in the district, after a tender submission came in at more than four times the budgeted cost.
Berri Barmera Council secured part funding through the State Government’s Special Local Roads Program to undertake $177,000 of sealing and realignment works for McKay Road, Glossop, and $70,800 worth of similar upgrades for Loveday Road, Loveday, in the 2020/21 financial year.
However, council received no submissions during the initial tender process and just two partial tenders by the end of an extended tender submission.
One of the tenders for the sealing projects came in at about 450 per cent above the budgeted amount, while the other – for hotmix renewals across the Berri CBD – came in almost 200 per cent over budget.
In a report to council’s Strategy, Assets and Major Projects Committee, infrastructure services manager Dave Otto de Grancy said the tendered amounts made undertaking the works within the 2020/21 financial year “unaffordable and economically irresponsible”.
“Recent government stimulus spending, the impacts from the Covid pandemic as well as the recent growth within the civil sector have resulted in contractors being unavailable and choosing not to tender for regional works,” he said.
“Unfortunately, this impacts on regional councils such as ours during this time as we are seeing massively reduced numbers of received tenders where we previously had very competitive tender submissions.
“This market often leads to premium, inflated prices when we can secure responses from interested and available contractors.”
Committee members passed a motion to carry the works over into the 2021/22 financial year.
“We will endeavour to get the best quality works and price for these jobs by combining multiple capital works together under a single tender… and a longer construction timeframe to encourage additional interest in the works,” Mr Otto de Grancy said.
The decision comes after a local business unexpectedly pulled out of a contract to complete council’s kerbing works earlier this year.