WINDSOR —The consortium building the Rt. Hon. Herb Gray Parkway — the new border route linking the existing Hwy. 401 to a future international bridge between Windsor and Detroit, is being fined more than $100,000 a day, says a local construction official.
Jim Lyons, Windsor Construction Association (WCA) executive director, told the Daily Commercial News that he understands the fines have been imposed since the beginning of the year because the 11 km, mostly sunken, expressway hasn’t been completed on time.
"They are now in penalty if you will," he said.
"I’ve been told over $100,000 a day in liquidated damages because the road’s not available to the public."
The consortium is led by a French and Spanish team and was chosen by Infrastructure Ontario and Ontario Ministry of Transportation (MTO) to build and maintain for 30 years the innovative parkways, featuring 11 elongated tunnels topped by parkland (to knit together existing neighbourhoods) and provide green space and walking trails on Windsor’s west side. The $1.4 billion contract is performance based.
WEMG is a consortium of ACS Infrastructure Canada Inc., Acciona Concessions Canada, and Fluor Canada Ltd.
Meanwhile Parkway Infrastructure Constructors (PIC) is under contract to WEMG to design and construct the Parkway. PIC is a joint venture of Fluor Canada Ltd., Dragados Canada Inc. and Acciona Infrastructures Canada Inc.
Consortium spokeswoman Cindy Prince said, "The construction team does not discuss internal contractual matters."
The delay might mostly be related to the replacement of hundreds of defective girders that had to be ripped out and replaced.
"Had they not had the girder issue they might have made schedule," Lyons said.
MTO says all 1,483 girders are now in place.
Government officials expect the highway to be open to local traffic this summer while planning continues on approaches, a border plaza and construction of the new international bridge.
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