Victoria is bringing in an independent consultant to assess risks with the city’s $92.8-million Johnson Street bridge replacement project in the wake of an unexpected bill from the contractor.
In an in-camera meeting Thursday night, councillors were told of city manager Jason Johnson’s hiring of Jonathan Huggett, an engineer and consultant with expertise in large bridge projects.
Huggett will be paid $15,000 to review all contract documents, interview key staff, the engineering consultants MMM Group, and representatives from PCL Westcoast Inc., the contractor building the bridge.
He is to make recommendations on whether any additional strategies should be employed to ensure effective delivery of the project.
The move comes after PCL, citing issues around design delivery and project scope growth related to material increases, submitted a change order seeking an additional $7.9 million and 5 1/2 months to complete the project. Change orders are the typical mechanism for contractors to present potential changes.
City staff say design of the bridge is essentially complete and will be finalized by next month. At the time the contract was awarded, the project design was “60 per cent complete, sufficient for the contractor to begin construction,” according to staff reports.
Coun. Lisa Helps said she voted against the award of the contract at the time in part because design was only at 60 per cent and she was not convinced the contingency was large enough.
“So that’s 40 per cent unknown and that’s a lot. I thought we could do better,” Helps said.
She welcomed the review and while “82 per cent sure” the bridge will come in on budget, she said the city has to be realistic about all possibilities.
“Of course, there’s a possibility of it going over budget. It’s naive to think it might not. We have to be real about this,” Helps said.
“I don’t know if there are problems or not, but an indicator that we’ve got to get a handle on things is a change order so early in the project and so substantial with regard to design.”
Mayor Dean Fortin remains steadfast in his position that the city has a fixed-price contract with PCL and has no intention of paying any more money for the job.
“I’m confident that we’ve taken all of the steps to protect the public interest and to make sure we bring the project in on budget and on time,” Fortin said.
“At the same time, I’m never going to hesitate to continue to work to make sure that the public’s interest is protected. That’s what this contract [with Huggett] does. It’s an opportunity to go back and check to make sure we do have all our bases covered.”
