County of Brant Council supported awarding the Phase One contract for the East Paris Flats reconstruction project to L82 (East) Construction Incorporated during its Administration and Operations meeting on Tuesday, April 21, 2026.
According to a staff report, the project entails full road reconstruction on Portland Street, Nimmo Street, Joseph Brant Street, Mick Jones Way, William Street Walnut Street, and a portion of Smith Street East due to current road conditions and to accommodate upgraded underground infrastructure. Surface works will include sidewalk improvements and the construction of new curb and gutter in locations where the new storm water collection system has been added.
In addition to that, most of the existing water main within the Phase 1 limits will be replaced as due to capacity and end of life concerns. New water services will be installed to front property lines.
New storm sewers will also be installed on Portland Street, Nimmo Street, Joseph Brant Street and Smith Street East.
“The new storm water collection system on Joseph Brant Street and Smith Street East will allow for improved local drainage on Mick Jones Way,” the report stated. “Minor storm sewer improvements will be completed on Willow Street, Walnut Street, and William Street to improve local drainage.”
The staff report includes a section in regards to a public open house at County of Brant Council Chambers on November 24, 2025. While there, staff presented the proposed designs and received feedback from the community, noting that there were 40 residents in attendance.
An Engage Brant survey was also conducted between November 11, 2025 and January 21, 2026. The website states there were 331 visits to the project page, 16 feedback forms submitted and eight additional questions or comments received.
According to the public survey, residents asked for clear and early communication about driveway closures and timelines, a plan for temporary parking, assurance that mature trees and private property will be protected, support for residents with mobility or health related needs, and safe access for children walking to school and for delivery and service vehicles.
The tender for the project was released on Tuesday, MArch 2, 2026, and the County received a total of seven bids ranging from $1,455,516.42 to $1,945,529.12.
Of those bids, staff recommended that L82 (East) Construction Incorporated be awarded the contract, noting its price was the lowest of the seven.
During the meeting, Councillor John Bell asked Mark Maxwell, Director of Engineering and Infrastructure Planning, when construction will begin and what sort of impact it will have on traffic.
“We expect once it’s awarded, it will take about a month for them to get everything lined up and get the locates, so we would expect to see them out there at the beginning of June,” Maxwell responded. “As far as the impact on the rest of Paris, most of the work is off of the main roads. There are a couple crossings on Willow Street, and we’ll have to work with our team to try to coordinate those so it’s not causing chaos for the rest of the community, but most of it will be on the side streets.”
The report states that the project is anticipated to be substantially completed before the end of the 2026 construction season, and that, depending on weather, surface asphalt and boulevard restoration may not be completed until spring 2027.
Bell also asked how the County evaluates tender bids, and Maxwell explained that in most cases, the contract is awarded to the lowest bidder so long as there are no red flags and staff can confirm the company is qualified.
“It will be almost always be awarded to the low bidder unless we have major, major concerns,” said Maxwell. “In this case, knowing that there were maybe a couple of little red flags because of some history and even looking at the bid compared to all the rest of the bidders, we did run through the calculations and applied some scores, and even by applying those scores, the low bidder was still the highest scoring.”
The vote to award the contract to L82 (East) Construction Incorporated was then carried unanimously noting that Councillors Lukas Oakley and John Peirce were not present for the meeting.
The final vote to award the contract was ratified at the Tuesday, April 28 Council meeting.
Kimberly De Jong’s reporting is funded by the Canadian government through its Local Journalism Initiative.The funding allows her to report rural and agricultural stories from Blandford-Blenheim and Brant County. Reach her at kimberly.dejong@brantbeacon.ca.
