A contract tender for safety repairs to the eastern slide tower at Confederation Beach Park’s Wild Waterworks drew just a single bid from five contractors who visited the site in January to get more details on the project.
Hamilton Conservation Authority directors nonetheless unanimously accepted Mississauga-based TruGrp Inc.’s $140,000 bid without discussion at their March 7 meeting after being assured the company is fully qualified.
Matt Hall, who oversees capital projects for the conservation authority, said the bid is also within the project’s budget set by the city, which owns Confederation Beach Park but contracts management to the authority.
The repairs, which will fix corrosion by the tower’s four-slide launching platform, must be completed before Wild Waterworks opens for the 2024 season and TruGrp has committed to finishing work by the May long weekend, he said afterwards.
Hall said the lack of more bids wasn’t unexpected because of the specialized nature of the project and challenges working on the four-slide tower.
“It’s very uneven terrain out there. It’s difficult to set up scaffolding or, like, a boom truck that can get out there to get to all the little intricate components of the side tower itself,” he said.
“There’s steel beams and girders all over the place that you have to work around and get in between to make sure that the corrosion work is being performed properly, so it’s just a difficult site from that regard.”
It’s not the first time the conservation authority has had trouble attracting contractors for Wild Waterworks repairs. Directors shelved plans to recoat the aging Blue Demon and Night Rider waterslides in March 2022 after a tender drew no bids.
The move followed a decision the previous September to retender the project after an initial tender drew a lone bid that was nearly double the $300,000 budget.
Hall said the conservation authority hoped to take advantage of Wild Waterworks’ shutdown during COVID-19 for esthetic upgrades to make it more attractive to potential visitors driving by along the QEW.
But unlike recoating the waterslides, a staff report states the tower refurbishment was prompted by a June 2023 inspection by the province’s Technical Standards and Safety Authority.
The public safety regulator ordered a review of the steel structure and concrete ramps leading to the launch platform for the tower’s four slides after finding “heavy corrosion in some areas.”
A consultant hired for the review concluded that “removal of corrosion and the replacement of zinc coatings were required within the next year to prevent further deterioration,” the staff report states.
- Article was updated
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Despite the pending tower repairs, Wild Waterworks’ future is uncertain. Councillors voted in December to have staff investigate opportunities to redevelop the 4.9-hectare facility, opened in 1983, potentially with the help of a private partner.
Council didn’t act on a November 2020 staff report outlining four options for Wild Waterworks, ranging from a $5-million “do nothing” approach that would let it fall into disrepair to spending $61 million on a new design and rides.
The water park has averaged about 110,000 visitors per year, above the 100,000 needed to break even, the report said.
“Most of the existing facilities and infrastructure are dated and at a point in their life cycle where they require major refurbishment or replacement,” it stated, recommending modest enhancements pegged at $40 million.
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