F.OURNET, Chief Justice.
The plaintiffs, citizens and taxpayers of the City of Shreveport, are appealing from a judgment dismissing their suit against the City and against Dozier B. Webster, the Clerk of Court and Ex-Officio Recorder of Caddo Parish, seeking judgment decreeing the nullity and illegality of the City’s Ordinance No. 79 of 1956, under which certain local improvement assessments were made, and ordering the cancellation and erasure from the Parish mortgage records of any and all assessments against them or their property made pursuant to said ordinance.
The City Council of the City of Shreveport, availing itself of the provisions of R.S. 33:330l through 33:3316, as amended (covering the subject of municipal street improvements at the instance of the governing authority), by Resolution adopted on June 14, 1955, resolved that notice be given of intention to pave Jewella Avenue from Greenwood Road to Lakeshore Drive, the said work to be done under private contract awarded after competitive bidding, and the total expenditure to be paid in the following proportion: by the owners of real property abutting such improvements, an amount not to exceed two-thirds of the cost of a 36 foot wide strip of paving, and by the City, the remaining cost. The notice of intention, containing a verbatim copy of the Resolution as adopted by the City Council, was duly published,1 and the City Council at its regular meeting of July 12, 1955, voted to proceed with the improvements; at the same meeting, by resolution, the City Engineer was authorized and instructed to prepare plans and specifications for paving the project and to do all necessary engineering work; the City Attorney was instructed to handle legal matters pertaining thereto ; and, by another resolution, certain plans and specifications for the paving, already prepared by the City Engineer and on file at the office of the Secretary-Treas-[885]*885mrer of the City, were considered, were deemed adequate and were approved, and it was ordered that the work be constructed in accordance therewith — the Secretary-Treasurer being ordered to advertise for bids. On August 9, 1955, the Council, in meeting assembled, received and opened bids, and these were referred to certam City agencies for tabulating and a report at the next meeting. Thereafter, by Resolution, the lowest bid, in amount of $265,268.69, was accepted; a contract was executed under date of August 23, 1955. The work was promptly commenced, the project was prosecuted to completion, and the engineer’s report setting forth completion and total costs was rendered and approved by the City Council on May 22, 1956; it indicated that a cost of $117,038.47 was to be borne by the abutting property. Ordinance No. .79 was then adopted, in which there was levied a special assessment (on a front foot basis) in specific amounts, totaling the said sum, against the abutting property and its owners, and a copy was filed with the Clerk of Court of Caddo Parish, who was ordered to record same in the Mortgage Records.2 This suit followed.
The trial judge, in a well reasoned opinion, correctly recognized the law to be that statutes conferring upon municipalities the authority to impose special or local assessments, such as the' one under which the City of Shreveport proceeded,. are in derogation of common right and therefore, as a general proposition, are to be accorded a strict construction, and that failure to comply with those requirements which are sacramental is fatal to the validity of the acts of the municipality; but he also pointed out that where a statute is substantially followed, mere informalities and irregularities in the procedures employed by the municipality in attempting to comply with such statutes do not necessarily render the whole null and void — this being in fact conceded by counsel for the plaintiffs, but it is their contention that the alleged non-com-pliances of the City in carrying out the project were so gross as to invalidate the City’s power and authority to levy the assessments in this case. In resolving that issue, the trial judge held, and we think properly so, that there was substantial, if not literal, compliance with the requirements of the applicable statute, and that plaintiffs are not entitled to the relief sought.
The plaintiffs-appellants, in complaining of the trial judge’s conclusions,3 assign as error (a) his holding that the notice of intention to undertake the project, as pub[886]*886lished by the City, complied with R.S. 33 :- 3302 ;4 (b) his holding that the City could accept bids and award a contract based on a “unit price,” since the “turnkey” type contract is indispensable to compliance with the mandatory provisions of R.S. 33:3305 and 3306 and a valid assessment for the cost of street improvements against abutting property owners; (c) his holding that the legal phrase “shall forthwith” found in R.S. 33:3305, did not mean “immediately,” or “instanter,” and therefore a substantial delay by the City Engineer in performing the required act was sufficient compliance with the mandatory statutory requirement ; (d) in refusing to hold that the addition of substantial items of work to the project after the contract was let and work begun constituted work illegally undertaken and completed without any process of competitive bidding as required by R.S. 33:3303-3304, thus rendering illegal any assessment against abutting property.
The plaintiffs’ complaint with respect to the notice of intention5 is that it tended to create the impression that the paving was to be of a width customary on residential streets, i. e., 36 feet, and concealed the fact that the project was to be highway construction, an eight inch thick slab 42 feet wide — thus failing to meet the requirement of R.S. 33:3302. This objection does not impress us. The cited statute requires that the notice of intention to make proposed improvements “shall contain a general description of the improvements contemplated, the manner of paying for them * * and we think the trial judge correctly disposed of the matter, observing that in final analysis the plaintiffs are claiming that both the finished width and thickness of the proposed paving must have been contained in the resolution and notice, yet that the statute makes no such requirement, and that no jurisprudence was cited to sustain plaintiffs’ position. He also pointed out that at the meeting (fixed as the occasion when the Council would hear, consider, and pass on objections)there were on hand complete and detailed plans and specifications prepared by the City Engineer, so that all interested persons might have detailed information concerning the proposed improvement;6 and concluded that the City Council had discretion in deciding how much detail concerning the proposed work should be placed in the notice, so long as there was substantial compliance with the requirements of law.
[887]*887Pursuing further argument, counsel for plaintiffs emphasize that work in this case was let as the result of competitive bids on a unit price basis, and the bids that were invited did not call for a “turnkey job/’ yet the requirements of the statute can be observed only in the case of a turnkey contract.7 Counsel assert that the bids on a unit basis in this case initiated a chain of errors which resulted in a reversal of statutory provisions, thus demonstrating that the statute presupposes a turnkey contract and that type only.
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F.OURNET, Chief Justice.
The plaintiffs, citizens and taxpayers of the City of Shreveport, are appealing from a judgment dismissing their suit against the City and against Dozier B. Webster, the Clerk of Court and Ex-Officio Recorder of Caddo Parish, seeking judgment decreeing the nullity and illegality of the City’s Ordinance No. 79 of 1956, under which certain local improvement assessments were made, and ordering the cancellation and erasure from the Parish mortgage records of any and all assessments against them or their property made pursuant to said ordinance.
The City Council of the City of Shreveport, availing itself of the provisions of R.S. 33:330l through 33:3316, as amended (covering the subject of municipal street improvements at the instance of the governing authority), by Resolution adopted on June 14, 1955, resolved that notice be given of intention to pave Jewella Avenue from Greenwood Road to Lakeshore Drive, the said work to be done under private contract awarded after competitive bidding, and the total expenditure to be paid in the following proportion: by the owners of real property abutting such improvements, an amount not to exceed two-thirds of the cost of a 36 foot wide strip of paving, and by the City, the remaining cost. The notice of intention, containing a verbatim copy of the Resolution as adopted by the City Council, was duly published,1 and the City Council at its regular meeting of July 12, 1955, voted to proceed with the improvements; at the same meeting, by resolution, the City Engineer was authorized and instructed to prepare plans and specifications for paving the project and to do all necessary engineering work; the City Attorney was instructed to handle legal matters pertaining thereto ; and, by another resolution, certain plans and specifications for the paving, already prepared by the City Engineer and on file at the office of the Secretary-Treas-[885]*885mrer of the City, were considered, were deemed adequate and were approved, and it was ordered that the work be constructed in accordance therewith — the Secretary-Treasurer being ordered to advertise for bids. On August 9, 1955, the Council, in meeting assembled, received and opened bids, and these were referred to certam City agencies for tabulating and a report at the next meeting. Thereafter, by Resolution, the lowest bid, in amount of $265,268.69, was accepted; a contract was executed under date of August 23, 1955. The work was promptly commenced, the project was prosecuted to completion, and the engineer’s report setting forth completion and total costs was rendered and approved by the City Council on May 22, 1956; it indicated that a cost of $117,038.47 was to be borne by the abutting property. Ordinance No. .79 was then adopted, in which there was levied a special assessment (on a front foot basis) in specific amounts, totaling the said sum, against the abutting property and its owners, and a copy was filed with the Clerk of Court of Caddo Parish, who was ordered to record same in the Mortgage Records.2 This suit followed.
The trial judge, in a well reasoned opinion, correctly recognized the law to be that statutes conferring upon municipalities the authority to impose special or local assessments, such as the' one under which the City of Shreveport proceeded,. are in derogation of common right and therefore, as a general proposition, are to be accorded a strict construction, and that failure to comply with those requirements which are sacramental is fatal to the validity of the acts of the municipality; but he also pointed out that where a statute is substantially followed, mere informalities and irregularities in the procedures employed by the municipality in attempting to comply with such statutes do not necessarily render the whole null and void — this being in fact conceded by counsel for the plaintiffs, but it is their contention that the alleged non-com-pliances of the City in carrying out the project were so gross as to invalidate the City’s power and authority to levy the assessments in this case. In resolving that issue, the trial judge held, and we think properly so, that there was substantial, if not literal, compliance with the requirements of the applicable statute, and that plaintiffs are not entitled to the relief sought.
The plaintiffs-appellants, in complaining of the trial judge’s conclusions,3 assign as error (a) his holding that the notice of intention to undertake the project, as pub[886]*886lished by the City, complied with R.S. 33 :- 3302 ;4 (b) his holding that the City could accept bids and award a contract based on a “unit price,” since the “turnkey” type contract is indispensable to compliance with the mandatory provisions of R.S. 33:3305 and 3306 and a valid assessment for the cost of street improvements against abutting property owners; (c) his holding that the legal phrase “shall forthwith” found in R.S. 33:3305, did not mean “immediately,” or “instanter,” and therefore a substantial delay by the City Engineer in performing the required act was sufficient compliance with the mandatory statutory requirement ; (d) in refusing to hold that the addition of substantial items of work to the project after the contract was let and work begun constituted work illegally undertaken and completed without any process of competitive bidding as required by R.S. 33:3303-3304, thus rendering illegal any assessment against abutting property.
The plaintiffs’ complaint with respect to the notice of intention5 is that it tended to create the impression that the paving was to be of a width customary on residential streets, i. e., 36 feet, and concealed the fact that the project was to be highway construction, an eight inch thick slab 42 feet wide — thus failing to meet the requirement of R.S. 33:3302. This objection does not impress us. The cited statute requires that the notice of intention to make proposed improvements “shall contain a general description of the improvements contemplated, the manner of paying for them * * and we think the trial judge correctly disposed of the matter, observing that in final analysis the plaintiffs are claiming that both the finished width and thickness of the proposed paving must have been contained in the resolution and notice, yet that the statute makes no such requirement, and that no jurisprudence was cited to sustain plaintiffs’ position. He also pointed out that at the meeting (fixed as the occasion when the Council would hear, consider, and pass on objections)there were on hand complete and detailed plans and specifications prepared by the City Engineer, so that all interested persons might have detailed information concerning the proposed improvement;6 and concluded that the City Council had discretion in deciding how much detail concerning the proposed work should be placed in the notice, so long as there was substantial compliance with the requirements of law.
[887]*887Pursuing further argument, counsel for plaintiffs emphasize that work in this case was let as the result of competitive bids on a unit price basis, and the bids that were invited did not call for a “turnkey job/’ yet the requirements of the statute can be observed only in the case of a turnkey contract.7 Counsel assert that the bids on a unit basis in this case initiated a chain of errors which resulted in a reversal of statutory provisions, thus demonstrating that the statute presupposes a turnkey contract and that type only. Noted by counsel is the circumstance that plans and specifications were prepared in advance of the hearing — a necessity if the bidding is to be on a unit basis, and showing, incidentally (it is said), that the City Council had no intention of being influenced by objections ■ — -whereas the statute provides that plans and specifications are to be prepared only following a hearing and disposal of objections; and the further circumstance that the certified report of the City Engineer, which should have been required by the municipality “forthwith” upon the award of a contract,8 was not filed until nine months after the contract was let and more than two months after it was completed. These contentions are without merit. Nothing is found in the statute that expressly prohibits the unit price type contract nor expressly specifies the turnkey type; and the record contains evidence not only that the unit method of performing public works under private contract is in general use by municipalities, state and federal agencies, and private enterprises, but also that experience has shown this to be a more economical manner of letting private contracts in cases of this kind. Indeed, the record contains no evidence to the contrary. We therefore conclude that the mode of procedure under a unit-price contract constituted a valid exercise of the discretion of the governing authorities to decide whether to let contracts for public improvements on a turnkey or a unit price basis. It follows that the word “forthwith” has a relative significance, because when the statute is read as a whole and its provisions construed the one with the other, the intent is evident that the Engineer shall make the report as soon as he has the necessary information.
The final asserted violation of sacramental statutory requirements arises because the total cost of the work exceeded the bid price by some $14,369, due to the addition of items not included in the plans and specifications, nor in the advertisement for bids, the bids accepted, the contract entered into — also said to result from the “unit price” contract. On the basis that there was lack of compliance with the formalities of law requiring all items of work and cost to be determined in a process of competitive bidding, it is contended that [888]*888the various assessments levied against the abutting property owners bore no relation to the project advertised or authorized by the resolution; that this was fatal to the legality and validity of the City’s acts and the whole assessment — but if not to the whole, then unquestionably to the extent at least of these extras. We think that the trial judge properly rejected this contention in its entirety, aptly observing that “the degree of competition in the bidding was not in the estimates the bidders submitted as a total cost figure but was the price bid per unit;” that all bids submitted were on an estimated total cost price; and that “the items which made up the difference between the finally approved total cost and the estimated total bid price consisted of minor and immaterial alterations in the work as it progressed and because of encountering certain obstacles and conditions not originally contemplated.”
For the reasons assigned, the judgment appealed from is affirmed.
SIMON, J., absent.