Letter to the Editor
Editor,
These reasons given for the delays to the bridge rebuilding schedule are truly pathetic. They (senior staff and Council) may as well have said the the dog ate the drawings. Three reasons were given: rain delays, need to fabricate a special pipe hanger, and reacting to missing thrust blocks. There is no explanation whether these delays overlapped in any way only that days/weeks were lost because of each.
An outdoor project spanning months should have rain contingencies built into the schedule, this excuse is lame.
Two week delay to fabricate a specialized pipe hanger? The bid specification indicates that the two existing south pipe hangers were to be replaced by common off-the-shelf pipe hangers. Doubt very much that aluminum hangers used on a job like this. If any kind of specialized hanger were indeed necessary a project manager worth their salt would get it done in 48 hours max.
Having to shut the job down because thrust blocks were found necessary because new construction requires them? What was the consultant engineering firm doing? They had the original drawings to go by and would have seen the lack of modern thrust blocks and should have been engineering these changes from the beginning. It is going to be interesting to see how much these delays and revisions will affect the final cost.
My first reaction upon reading of these delay excuses was, “Do Council and senior staff really believe this nonsense?”, and of course the answer is YES.
We are blessed with a council and senior staff who do not have a technical bone in their bodies so they are at the mercy of consultants and contractors.
Doesn’t look good for all the millions in infrastructure coming up, appears we have a Council and staff unprepared for the tasks ahead!
Ray McHugh , P.Eng., Meaford
