Courtesy: Twitter @ThunderBayChill

Council has given its approval on moving ahead with a massive rehabilitation of the track and field components of the Fort William Stadium.

Work will include the rehabilitation of the rubberized track and installation of a new artificial turf field, along with other improvements at a price tag of $4,910,818.17.

Councillor Andrew Foulds says Thunder Bay is a sports city and in order for the city to produce quality athletes, quality facilities are needed.

“The Fort William Stadium gets used a lot by community groups, by boards of education and we need to make sure that it is safe and that the facility allows those athletes to excel.”

Initially the project included the replacement of the stadium lighting, bleacher enhancements, asphalt repair due to the replacement of the lighting, an enhanced drainage ring separating the track and turf field, and a steeple chase upgrade, among other items. However that price tag put the project over $5.2 million dollars, above what the city could budget, even with $1,718,640 in grant funding from various entities including FedNor and the Northern Ontario Heritage Fund Corporation.

Those items were removed to reduce costs to bring the project below five million dollars.

City staff say a public tender was put forward in October and following site visits by six contractors only one bid was put forward, from L-T-L Contracting Limited. Foulds calls that a little disappointing but understands there are limitations by companies right now due to supply chain and workforce issues.

“I’m not totally surprised. Again I’d say going forward with big contracts like this, I mean I’m hopeful more businesses more contractors would come forward because that just shows maybe perhaps the economy is rebounding.”

Work on the project is slated for next summer.