Straight from the LSAC Web Site

Administration Office Information

The County's New Administrative Home

Lac Ste. Anne County Council acknowledged the need to build a new administration office. Since that time, Council and staff have been touring other municipal offices to learn what's worked and what hasn't. They listened to suggestions during those tours, hired experts to help guide the process, manage the project, and develop a design that meets the County's growing needs.

On September 15, 2015, Council approved funding for the new administration building. Approximately 80% of funding will come from grants. The balance is from money already saved for this project. The estimated construction cost of the building is $8.3 million. The total estimated project cost is $11.7 million.

Project Status Updates  May 26, 2017

The project is still working towards a completion of May 31, 2017. However, it was decided that the substantial completion and the final completion inspections will not be done until the floor issue has been resolved. All parties involved are currently working on fixing the issue which may cause some delays on handover. Casman is now setting up commissioning, testing and inspections. With regards to the finishing Casman is working on wrapping up final touches and should be completing all the work toward the end of May. The expected move-in date is mid to late June.

Construction Status

Casman has confirmed that they are aiming to have all the work completed by May 31, 2017 

WITH THE EXCEPTION OF THE UNEVEN CONCRETE FLOOR ISSUE! 

At this time the construction activity status is as follows:

All major construction materials are on site
Interior wall framing is complete
Drywall installation complete
Mudding and taping is nearly complete (approx. 98%)
Painting work is nearly complete including the vault (95%)
Millwork has been substantially installed (approx. 98%)
Majority of Flooring has been installed i.e. carpet, tiles and polished concrete (approx.98%)
Acoustic ceilings grids and tiles are nearly complete (95%)
Window and Glass installation is nearly complete (98%)
HVAC and the Mechanical equipment is in place (95%)
Testing/commissioning/balancing to start week of May 15th
Electrical work is in progress – Delayed due to disagreement between Casman and Electrical sub – Light fixtures are currently installed except bee hive lights which have arrived onsite (approx. 80%)
County’s contractors for the new Fire Protection system near complete (approx. 96%)
County to coordinate AV equipment and installation for the Council Chambers
Backup Generator installed. Connection to the building pending
Tie-in for the Fire protection system to be determined (extra design work)

Pending Decisions/Issues

Uneven Floors: 

There are numerous offices where the flooring is uneven. The concrete floor either slopes down towards the exterior of the building or has a hump in the middle of the room. 

Further investigation revealed that there is water under the slab which has caused the high plastic clay to heave. There are two likely reasons for the water, the site grading not completed or maintained properly in some areas causing the water to flow toward the foundation, or the downspouts are not discharging water further away from the building as should have been designed and constructed based on the geotechnical report. 

Based on the geotechnical report, the site grading was to slope away from the building which was not the case as observed in some areas and the downspouts were to be at least 3m away from the building which is not how it has been designed. 

Colliers Project Leaders provided recommendations (May 12) to possibly prevent further water infiltration and relieve the pressure from under the slab. 

However, it is recommended that cores will be required to determine how much further the sub-grade will settle before repairing the floors. 

County to confirm if they want to proceed with coring.

Fire Protection System: 

County is currently working with own contractors to have this scope delivered prior to project completion as it is a critical component of occupancy.The county has made good progress on this work and is nearly complete. 

The tie-in design was not in A&E’s scope and have requested additional fees, however a breakdown has been requested for the fee proposal.

Furniture: 

The County will procure furniture. The County will coordinate delivery with Casman, once substantial completion is obtained. All the power requirements have been coordinated and Casman is proceeding with the changes.

A/V Systems: 

County awarded the AV systems and will be coordinating the work.The County A/V company will work with Casman’s electrician to complete this. No further action required.

Schedule Delay: 

Casman has now indicated a final completion/move-in date of May 31, 2017. 

However, they are having a disagreement with the second electrical sub that was brought on board. Casman has brought onboard a third contractor and the work is ongoing. 

Another Lien was filed by Ryfan (2nd contractor) in the amount of $172,000 which will be dealt with by Casman. Casman has indicated that they have a plan to take care of all Liens prior to building occupancy. An update to follow.

Budget

The project is currently on budget and the forecast is positive.

Total Project Budget: $11,729,663
Total Committed Cost: $10,053,325

Original Construction Value: $7,953,604.81
Revised Construction Value: $8,507.009.58

Total Contingency Remaining: $739,639
Forecast Cost at Completion: $10,930,023

Approved Change Orders: $553,404.77

Risks

The following are the major risks that are being monitored at this time:

Schedule Delays: 

Overall the progress on site has been slow. 

The progress claims justify this slow progress in terms of completion of work per month. The percent completion of some of the items has been slower than what Casman had provided in the schedule. 

Mitigation: 

Work with the contractor and architect to resolve any issues in a timely manner and only pursue changes that will not affect the critical path of the schedule.

Design Coordination: 

Some of the responses from A&E have not been coordinated to include all sub consultant reviews and have caused confusion on site. 

At this time, it is important to provide clear responses and have resolution on any issues. 

Mitigation: 

The frequency of the Site Owners meetings has been increased, to ensure that the issues are being resolved and the work is progressing in order to meet the schedule. 

In addition, we are increasing the regular communication, and the timing of that communication, to help ensure all responses are clear to all parties involved, in a timely manner. Recent RFIs and queries have seen a same day response and this type of response time will be the plan until project completion.