Article content continued

City hall is counting on receiving federal money earmarked for transit infrastructure.

HDR was instrumental in helping develop the Silver Line BRT system in Grand Rapids, Mich., the state’s first such system.

Council was told HDR’s was the low bid, but Coun. Bev Dubois asked for information on the unsuccessful bids. City manager Murray Totland said city hall will make an effort to be consistent with reports and include such information in future ones.

Coun. Zach Jeffries said some residents have wondered why an American company was chosen.

“We do not have the ability to exclude companies from other countries,” Anderson said.

The city is paying about half of the contract; the remainder comes from the federal government’s Public Transit Infrastructure Fund.

Anderson said the federal money has two deadlines in 2018 and 2019 and strict stipulations that contracts must be tendered. The plan must be completed by April 18, 2018, which is why the contract includes a contingency of nearly $600,000 to deal with unforeseen work.

Jeffries also suggested the contract could duplicate work being performed by a company contracted in May to study a solution to the city’s railway crossing delays for $600,000.

Angela Gardner, the city’s acting general manager of transportation and utilities, said the railway crossing study is examining two different options. Railway delays are seen as the major obstacle to a BRT system.

Mayor Charlie Clark wondered whether planning for the system will take into account technological advances like the effect of autonomous vehicles. Anderson said “a lot of unknowns” remain when it comes to autonomous vehicles, but HDR is a leading engineering firm.

ptank@postmedia.com

twitter.com/thinktankSK