The new Champlain Bridge won’t be ready on time
Expected to be completed by June ‘at the latest’
Add Michel Trépannier to the long list of experts and skeptics who warned the government’s deadline for completing the new Champlain Bridge was a pie-inthe-sky forecast.
“We know that a comparable bridge to the one being built here, that we’ve seen in other countries, we’re talking four to five years,” said Trépannier, president of the Conseil provincial du Québec des métiers de la construction (International), the union representing the majority of the bridge workers. “So from the start we knew it was practically impossible.
“But the workers did an amazing job to get to where they did,” in just three years, he said. Many haven’t taken a holiday in that time.
On Thursday, federal Infrastructure Minister François-Philippe Champagne confirmed the bridge, originally scheduled to be completed by Dec. 21 to replace its crumbling predecessor, could take as much as six months longer to finish because freezing conditions are putting a halt to the final paving touches.
The new bridge will be open by June 2019, “at the latest,” the minister said.
“The government of Canada’s priority is to ensure the new tollfree Champlain Bridge is built to endure without ever compromising the safety of workers or the public,” Champagne said at a news conference at the offices of Signature sur le Saint-Laurent (SSL), the consortium responsible for building the bridge.
In April, the federal government and SSL announced the deadline for building the bridge had been moved from Dec. 1 to Dec. 21.
Since then, inclement weather, a lightning strike on a bridge crane in July and strikes by crane operators caused more delays and pushed the end of the project into the winter months, said Daniel Genest, the director of co-ordination for SSL.
He and federal officials knew by the end of September they couldn’t meet deadline.
The government intends to adhere to the contract, which calls for the levying of late fees — $100,000 a day for the first seven days, and $400,000 for each day after that.
The maximum penalty is $150 million.
The consortium says much of the delay on the $4.2-billion bridge was caused by “unforeseen elements,” and any fines will be negotiated.
While the main structure will be completed by Dec. 21, the laying of a thin rubber membrane to waterproof the bridge and the application of two coats of asphalt will take at least two months, officials said.
Since the work can be done only in temperatures above 2 C and under specific humidity conditions, workers will have to wait until April or May to finish that work.
Contractors could cover the bridge deck in tents and heat the surface to do the work sooner, Genest said.
But the cost would be high and would have to be negotiated with Ottawa.
The main deck of the bridge is almost completed; a 37.5-metre gap remains in the 3.4-kilometre span.
The gap is expected to be closed by the end of November.
Officials said the old bridge is “monitored, stable and safe.”
The delay will cost an extra $10 million in maintenance costs, adding to the $300 million already spent on repairs to keep it in operation.
In May, federal auditor general Michael Ferguson released a scathing report about the new Champlain, saying: “It’s uncertain whether it will be completed by the December 2018 deadline.”
The report found Ottawa bungled planning and didn’t manage risks to mitigate cost delays and overruns.
Delays in approving the new span cost taxpayers $500 million in avoidable expenditures, the report said.
Even Genest of the SSL joked last year the company was hoping for “no winter and no rain for the next 14 months” to be able to finish the project on time.
Prior to 2018, two labour strikes and weight restrictions on the old bridge that forced SSL to use barges on the Saint-Lawrence River to transport heavy materials also slowed work.
The missed deadline won’t mean further delays for the Réseau express métropolitain (REM) lightrail train that is to run on the new bridge by 2021.
The $6.3-billion train line will have a station built into the bridge, where it meets Nun’s Island. REM spokesman Jean-Vincent Lacroix said the work on the tracks and station is to start in the fall of 2019 and won’t require lane closures on the new bridge.
About 58-million cars and trucks and 200,000 buses use the Champlain annually to cross the river, making it one of Canada’s busiest spans.