Mothballing a large project midstream can present a series of challenges for an owner, including how to safely secure the construction site and finalizing contract issues with construction, engineering and design parties.
When New Brunswick’s Conservative government came into power last year, it faced those challenges after it cancelled renovations to the Centennial Building, which housed many of its civic employees, as well as construction of an adjoining new courthouse.
“It’s just not very often we have to close out a major contract before it is finished and negotiate our way out of it,” says Bob Martin, assistant deputy minister of buildings with the department of transportation and infrastructure.
The project called for renovations and partial demolition to the Centennial Building, built in 1967 to house provincial government workers, and construction of a courthouse for a total cost of more than $70 million.
But in a December news release, New Brunswick Transportation and Infrastructure Minister Bill Oliver said halting the project will save the government $60 million and “allow us to protect our rural courthouses, ensuring that community-based access to justice continues.”
Martin says the cancellation requires the government to sit down with the contractor to negotiate an end to the contract. That contractor is Pomerleau, which was responsible for the site excavation and foundation work performed to date.
“Basically, the general contractor was starting to surcharge the site, so we got him to come up to grade and level everything off,” Martin explains.
He says negotiations to terminate the work have similarity to negotiations conducted over change orders.
“The onus is on him (Pomerleau) to substantiate his actual costs.”
The government is also working out its contractual obligations with the project architect Goguen Architecture Inc. who was in the midst of finalizing the next design package, he says. Toronto-based Montgomery Sisam Architects worked with Goguen on the design of the courthouse.
The development is adjacent to the city’s convention centre and the provincial legislature.
“It’s basically a shell of a building now,” Martin says. “If we don’t settle on another use for the site, part of it will be used as a parking lot.”
He says prior to the cancellation, work done included asbestos remediation and demolition of the back wing of the building. A new foundation for the courthouse was underway when the project was put on hold indefinitely.
About $13 million had been spent over the past few years, including monies for a boiler plant on a nearby property, he says.
Martin says preventive measures are being taken to ensure the remaining sections of the Centennial Building — about 120,000 square feet on six floors — will be kept weathertight. Heat trace cables will be used to prevent waterline freezing.
The Centennial Building contains mosaic wall designs that have been enclosed for protection while the building remains closed.
The structure is secured with fencing “tight to the building” to keep people out, Martin says, adding no plans are proposed yet for reopening or reconfiguring the building.
“This is not the only project that was frozen or cut. The province’s financial situation had to be addressed,” he adds.
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