The Boulevard Lake Dam rehabilitation is now $1.5-million over budget, though the current cost is still lower than the initial tender.

City councillors discussed this at Monday’s meeting, joined by Project Engineer Mike Vogrig who explained that the concrete was a big factor adding to the price tag.

“We don’t have a crystal ball, so we have to make some assumptions about the scope of the work,” explains Vogrig. “One of the big ones in this particular project for example is that we could re-use the post-tension that was in the dam, but once we exposed it and checked the condition of the concrete, we came to the realization that it wouldn’t be able to post-tension.”

Vogrig went on to mention that it is obviously not ideal that the project is overbudget, but stresses it will benefit Thunder Bay in the long run.

“Some of the work that had to get changed due to the concretes condition, we had some chip and patch work, and basically the concrete wasn’t in the shape to sustain that so we had to do some full concrete replacements,” says Vogrig. “Basically we now have a newer and more robust product, and typically with concrete you’re not in there doing any major rehabilitation work for another 50 years. Now, there’s other mechanical components such as gates, things of that nature, so there may be more of the maintenance and life cycle of differences.”

The Boulevard Lake Dam is over 100 years old.

The project is expected to be completed Oct. 31, and it does not appear the added price will have any affect on this.