The City of Ottawa is taking legal action against WSP Canada Inc., the company formerly known as Genivar, for design problems, delays, deficiencies, defects that caused cost over-runs in the construction of a pedestrian and cycle bridge.
“We are calling on Genivar to pay for the $4.6 million in costs that have resulted from their design,” said Ottawa Mayor Jim Watson in a press release. “This multi-million dollar claim demonstrates our commitment to holding outside consultants accountable for the role that they played in this troubled project.”
On June 3, the City of Ottawa announced the city clerk and solicitor have been directed to take legal action against Genivar and other parties for their work on the Airport Parkway Pedestrian/Cycling Bridge project.
The legal action, which began on Dec. 11, 2013, seeks to recover additional costs associated with construction delays and changes to the design of the bridge.
An independent review of the project conducted by SEG Management Consultants Inc. in February 2014 uncovered a long list of serious problems with the construction and management of the project.
“The highly visible location of the bridge, along the airport parkway, lead to the project being initiated as a ‘gateway’ feature for the city and this theme was carried through the planning and design phases,” said the report. “The difficulties encountered by the high profile of this project have generated significant public criticism; and the project is viewed as a failure by project staff, senior management and elected officials.”
The bridge project was initiated in June 2008 with the approval of the Transit Committee to undertake an Environmental Assessment (EA). Initially, the project was scheduled to be completed in three years, which included one year for the EA process, one year for design and one year for construction.
However, internal workload issues with the city delayed the start of the EA process until February 2009. The EA was not completed until April 2010, but the city managed to award a design contract and receive the completed design in May 2011.
Contract documents were produced and a construction contract was awarded on July 6, 2011. The contract included a final completion date in June 2012. The one-year construction period was compressed to four months, despite the delays in the EA process.
Contractor Louis W Bray (LWB) Construction Inc. hired Cumberland Ready Mix to provide a self-consolidating concrete mix that was necessary for the placement characteristics of the tower structure.
The sub-contractor provided a mix design and supplied the concrete for the lower tower pour. On removal of the forms considerable defects were discovered.
A report by A. Dagenais & Assoc. Inc., commissioned by LWB, concluded the tower must be demolished and re-constructed. This delayed construction by more than twelve months and generated claims by LWB, Cumberland Ready Mix and the city.
Defects in the fabrication of the anchor plate led to a change in fabricators by the contractor. It also caused a further delay in delivery of the anchor plate until May 2013.
The issues surrounding the fabrication and placement of this stay anchor would ultimately generate a design review. Shop drawings for the tower anchor plate were not submitted until October 2012.
For the second tower pour, the contractor encountered problems in attempting to align the anchor plate to within acceptable tolerances for erection of the rod stay connections to the bridge deck.
A critical site meeting to discuss this issue resulted in a third party review by Buckland and Taylor, who found the design was deficient in several areas.
The city dismissed the original design consultant and hired new consultants to re-design the bridge structure. The redesign and subsequent construction added another 16 months to the project schedule, with completion anticipated in late 2014.
Constructability issues and the complexity of the design were not addressed during the design process and were not incorporated into the contract documents issued for tender.
The city hired Delcan Corporation to do a re-design, which involved a more conventional cable stay system. This new design addressed the issues identified by Buckland & Taylor. Delcan also made further revisions to deal with a foundation design issue with the concrete tower.
The serious problems encountered by this project resulted in a three-year schedule delay to late 2014, from late 2011. More importantly, these problems increased the project’s total cost to $11.55 million from $6.9 million.
The SEG Management Consultants report is not intended to determine the extent to which the designer or contractor failed to deliver its commitment, or whether they were in default of contract. The scope of the review is limited to the management of the project by the city.
The report’s findings are based on the documentation provided by the city and interviews with key city staff and councillors associated with the project. No documentation or opinions were sought from the original design consultant or the contractor.
Follow Richard Gilbert on Twitter @buildingcanada.
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