The City of Vancouver has filed a notice of claim in B.C. Supreme Court against three contractors for what it is alleging to be defects and deficiencies in rehabilitation work on the Granville Bridge carried out between 2019 and 2021.
The three defendants are Associated Engineering Ltd., Graham Infrastructure LP and Ross Rex Industrial Painters Ltd. The three companies have yet to respond to the allegations, which have not been proven in court.
The city’s statement of claim holds Associated Engineering responsible for design and inspections, while Graham Infrastructure was the general contractor with Ross Rex Industrial Painters as the subcontractor for the painting work.
The 537-metre-long deck truss bridge was built in 1954 with eight lanes, as it was expected to connect to a freeway leading into the city’s downtown area. That connection never happened.
Showing its age, the city embarked on a $35 million bridge rehabilitation project in 2018, which was completed in 2021.
The city’s lawsuit claims the rehabilitation work in question on the bridge included expansion joints replacement, installing rubber troughs beneath the bridge to capture salted road runoff water that may corrode structural steel and recoating the structural steel beneath the expansion joints.
The city alleges a penetrating sealant that was to be applied during the recoating was not applied, the caulking application was skipped and the troughs were faulty allowing water to spill over.
“The defects/deficits and resultant damage pose a real and substantial danger to members of the public who use the Granville bridge and the city’s employees, contractors and representatives who access the Granville bridge, because of accelerated corrosion, degradation and weakening of structural steel members,” the city claims.
Graham’s work on its $16.4 million Granville bridge rehabilitation contract is featured on its website.
Over a period of 26 months, it provided joint rehabilitation including “the replacement of 22 expansion joints across up to eight vehicle lanes and two pedestrian sidewalks, replacement of four bearings on the bridge piers adjacent to False Creek, and extensive traffic management plans, which involved maintaining traffic and pedestrian flow on the bridge deck during construction.”
Graham, an employee owned company, also states on its website that it was “responsible for furnishing all labour, material, and equipment necessary for construction, including engineering and structural work.
“The bearings replacement work consisted of all steel and concrete work. The expansion joint work included all joint rehabilitation including steel work, replacement of expansion and deck joints as well as other related works. Graham also completed almost 300m2 of cast-in-place, trowel, and shotcrete concrete repairs in both vertical and overhead applications.”
The lump-sum project was completed in June 2021 with Associated Engineering (BC) Ltd. named as the prime consultant.
The lawsuit comes as the city in 2023 approved a $50 million project to transform the bridge using the two westerly lanes for walking and cycling and also construction to remove the loops at the bridge’s north end. Associated Engineering (BC) Ltd. is playing a role in the development.
On April 26, 2021, the city agreed to enter into a contract with Associated Engineering for the design and contract administration services for the Granville Bridge Connector Design and North Loops Reconfiguration for a term of four years with the option to extend for two additional one-year terms, with an estimated contract value of $2.78 million over the four-year contract life.
In 2022 the city awarded a $28 million contract to Pomerleau Inc. to remove the northern loops of bridge and reconfigure the deck to be more pedestrian oriented.
A year ago, Associate Engineering posted on LinkedIn in regard to the connector and loop project: “The project is now getting underway with Pomerleau as the contractor. Associated Engineering is leading the consulting team. Key work activities will include partial demolition of the Granville Street Bridge with replacement of a roadway on grade and inclusion of a multi-use pathway connecting the downtown core to communities south of Vancouver. We are excited to support the City in getting this project built.”
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