At its ordinary meeting on Wednesday 16 December, City of Ballarat Council awarded a contract for the construction of a new cell at the Ballarat Regional Landfill at Smythesdale.
The contract for the tendered price of $4,461, 296.18 (excluding GST) was awarded to Goldsmith Civil Engineering Pty Ltd from a field of seven tenders received.
Cell I will allow for the continued operation of the landfill to assist in managing the region's waste and follows significant challenges across Victoria in the past two years, including the impacts of recycling market changes and COVID -19.
Its design allows for the cell to be built in two stages - with stage one providing space for waste for two and a half years and stage two space for three years of waste.
These two stages will be completed over several financial years.
Councillors voted to approve a 30 per cent contingency budget to ensure the project construction continued and to prevent further additional costs. Councillors also voted to delegate authority to the Chief Executive Officer to execute the contract on behalf of Council.
The tender request sought highly experienced landfill cell construction companies that had demonstrated experience working under the Environment Protection Authority's Landfill Best Practice Environmental Management and experience working with site derived materials and with mixing of engineered fill.
The project is fully funded by the City of Ballarat budget and the landfill cost model is a self-funded model.
The City of Ballarat is continuing its transition to a circular economy with an ongoing focus on reducing waste, recycling materials as well as seeking local opportunities for product development and support for local innovations.
The City of Ballarat will continue to operate the landfill in a manner that meets best practice requirements and provides service to residential and business communities.
