Monday's city council meeting saw the completion of a few more steps for the City of Weyburn's water reservoir project.

Firstly, city council approved the recommendation for Colliers Project Leaders - a Canadian project management service - to undertake bid document review, a pre-qualification process for contracts and to assist the city in preparing a Request for Proposal (RFP) for construction inspection services.

Colliers Project Leaders' role will include conducting an independent third party review of the contract specifications and design drawings. Project managers will look for any inconsistencies and ensure these specifications and drawings are in alignment with each other, as well as to minimize additional costs for the city.

"It's a methodology that's used on larger projects to reduce risks for the owner," explained city engineer Sean Abram, about the more than $16 million reservoir project projected to be completed in March 2019.

As noted above, a RFP for construction inspection services is to be prepared by Colliers. This is because the City of Weyburn would be paying extra for the service due to the original design consultant exceeding its budget.

"It was felt it might be best to go to a third-party construction inspector as well, which will assist the city in making sure that this is a quality project that lasts for the city long term," said Abram.

Another step made was city council approving a RFP for a project management firm to provide overall construction management.

The reservoir project is partly funded by both the federal and provincial government; because of city staff daily obligations and workloads, they do not have the time to ensure obligations for funding agreements are met.

"Hiring a firm to provide those services will ensure that the city gets a good quality project," added Abram.

The city is currently working on issuing a RFP for this step of the process.

And finally at Monday's meeting, city council awarded the first construction contract for the reservoir project.

G. Ungar Construction based out of Theodore, Sask., will complete underground piping. Abram added this work is to be done on the south parking area of the water treatment plant and 16th Street.

According to Abram, this construction is slated to be underway late March at a cost of $850,200 (excluding taxes).