City approves funding transfer between capital projects

Aug 17, 2018 | 4:13 PM

KAMLOOPS — Since September of 2016, nearly all of the city’s capital projects have come in under or right on budget. 

However, four recent projects are over budget by more than $1 million collectively. 

Because of those overruns, Kamloops city council has approved the transfer of funds between projects to pay off some of the work that was more costly than anticipated. 

The Heffley Creek bridge replacement is nearly complete as workers install the final safety features on the project that began last October, following spring flooding that severely damaged the bridge. 

“The ‘road closed’ signs are still up, but we’re allowing local traffic to go through,” said Capital Projects Manager Darren Crundwell. “By the middle of next week, we’ll have all that fencing and work done, so it’s basically open and finished.”

The project was not without a few hiccups, including challenges with archaeological permitting that pushed the cost of construction over budget. 

“I don’t want to blame archaeology; that’s not the right way to put it. But we didn’t account for those costs, and it was significant,” Crundwell said. “We did have some fines on the site.”

The bridge requires a budget increase of $250,000. Similarly, the Grasslands Boulevard extension, completed earlier this year, will need a $175,000 boost, and the ongoing Peterson Creek Park multi-use pathway project is in need of an additional $350,000 thanks to a number of geotechnical issues.

“We look globally across all of the projects we’re doing and the majority of them are under budget. So what we’ve done, our finance team has created a general capital reserve now, so the projects that are under, when they’re funded by tax funds, will now go into an account to cover the projects that we do have that go over,” Crundwell said.

53 out of the 57 projects undertaken between September 2016 and the present date have come in at or under budget, providing the city more than $2.4 million to work with. 

“The public holds myself and council accountable for making sure that things at city hall are working efficiently, and in this case they certainly are,” said Kamloops Mayor Ken Christian. “This was, I think, a very good result for our capital projects division, and I think it reflects the quality of staff we have working in there.”

“I think it’s a good news story at the end of the day,” Crundwell said. “It will show that we don’t need budget increases when you look at the whole program.”