Fabrication of steel in China for the new Johnson Street Bridge has been halted after inspections found it was not being built according to design, says a project progress report for Victoria councillors.
Jiangsu Zhongtai Steel Structure Co. Ltd. is making steel for the bridge.
“A recent inspection found that some aspects of the steel, specifically the lifting lugs needed to move the bridge, were not fabricated according to the specifics laid out in the design,” the report says.
“Upon discovery of the error, work was immediately halted. Hardesty & Hanover [engineers] who have been placed in charge of quality control on behalf of MMM Group and the city, are reviewing the matter with the manufacturer, PCL [Constructors Westcoast Ltd.] and Atema [PCL’s quality control subcontractor] to determine next steps to resolve the issues and prevent further issues as work proceeds,” the report says.
And despite regular assurances from Mayor Dean Fortin that the bridge will be completed on time and on budget, PCL, the contractor building the bridge, is continuing to forecast it won’t be open to traffic until January 2016 — about five months later than originally planned.
Still not clear from the 52-page report is what the final price tag of the bridge project will be. Fortin has long maintained that the city has a fixed-price contract of $63.2 million. But in March, PCL told the city it needed an additional $7.9 million and 51Ú2 months to complete the project.
The report says that PCL has put the city on notice that they continue to suffer losses due to delays and will be submitting further details.
The city has hired Turnbull Construction Services Ltd., an independent engineer, to evaluate the request and offer advice.
That report is expected in the fall.
But the report also says that MMM Group, the city’s prime consultant on the project and sub-consultant Hardesty & Hanover have incurred cost overruns of about $840,000 and identified about $1.55 million in further costs for project completion that they consider outside of their contracted commitments. City staff are said to be evaluating the requests.
Fortin said he had not read the report and could not comment.
Coun. Lisa Helps, who is challenging Fortin in the Nov. 15 municipal election, said the update doesn’t provide any new information about project costs.
“Everyone is saying that everybody owes everybody more money. … What it’s over to now is city staff and [interim project manager Jonathan] Huggett and the Turnbull engineering folks to assess all these claims and try and mitigate them as best as possible,” Helps said.
The problems with steel fabrication could mean delays, she said. “The steel fabrication is firmly PCL’s responsibility, very clearly. So there’s no liability worry there. There’s a worry about possible further delays to the contract,” she said.
Meanwhile, city staff are recommending authorization of an additional $521,000 to build a retaining wall at 203 Harbour Rd. Work on the retaining wall — needed to maximize usable property for future expansion of Point Hope Shipyards — is not part of the bridge construction project but is to be funded through the Tax Sale Lands Reserve Fund. The budget initially approved for the retaining wall was $640,000.
