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Contract awarded for new Nelson transfer station

A Nanaimo company has won the contract to build the new transfer station at Grohman Narrows.
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A conceptual sketch of the new transfer station just west of Nelson.

A Nanaimo company has won the contract to build the new transfer station at Grohman Narrows.

The Regional District of Central Kootenay awarded the job Thursday to Copcan Contracting Ltd., the low bidder at $1.87 million. Although based on Vancouver Island, Copcan has a Rossland office.

The other bidders were Nelson's Maglio Installations Ltd. at $1.95 million and Dawson Construction Ltd. of Kamloops at $2.3 million.

Ron Mickel, who chairs the regional district's central waste committee, said work is expected to begin within six weeks and be completed next spring.

The new transfer station will be built on a 22-acre site five kilometres west of the city that the regional district bought in 2011.

It will replace the transfer station on the Nelson waterfront, which will be closed and remediated for other uses.

Although the low bid came in close to budget, Mickel said they have had to redesign some of the project.

"We have to leave some rock on site and just level it," he said. "The cost of crushing and making it useable for construction purposes was prohibitive, so we couldn't do that. We're just going to have to use it for fill."

Even so, Mickel said they are "committed to doing something workable for the next 30 or 40 years instead of fixing it up as we go."