Ministry issued 49 ‘stop work’ orders on LRT project

The Ontario Ministry of Labour has issued at least 49 “stop work” orders on the Confederation Line LRT project since the beginning of 2014, but the contractor says they were isolated issues not severely impacting the delivery of the $2.1-billion municipal project.

Peter Lauch, technical director with the Rideau Transit Group, said there are 14 active job sites along the project, which spans from Tunney’s Pasture to Blair station, and includes the maintenance and storage facility. Lauch said a stop work order literally means work has to stop in a particular area until the problem is fixed.

“It could be a compliance issue, it could be inadequate lighting, it could be something like guardrails,” Lauch said. “Oftentimes it’s something that can be dealt with right away and sometimes it can take a couple of days.”

The stop work orders usually don’t throw kinks into the timelines for the overall project because it doesn’t mean all the work stops in the larger job site, he said.

Still, the work does stop in that small area until the contractor shows it has complied with the order.

Lauch said it can be as simple as calling labour inspectors to let them know the problem has been fixed. Sometimes an inspector will confirm the fix in person.

The Ministry of Labour provided the Citizen a list of orders inspectors made between Jan. 1, 2014, and April 21, 2017.

Labour inspectors visited the LRT project 332 times in that time period, with 216 of those visits considered “proactive” in nature. The other 116 were listed as “reactive.”

Investigators made 320 orders, including the 49 stop work orders. They issued 50 requirements and there were 221 entries categorized as “other orders.”

Lauch said stop work orders usually relate to something that has to be physically implemented, where a requirement has to do with paperwork. There were eight stop work orders marked “outstanding” as of April 21.

Lauch said a stop work order might be still outstanding if the change hasn’t been made in the ministry’s database yet.

To his knowledge, there was one stop work order that was outstanding on Friday afternoon.

Lauch said the order is related to a need for more of lighting in the tunnel and the contractor received a time extension to remedy it.

“It was purely an issue of procuring and installing,” Lauch said. “Once that’s done, we’ll pick up the phone and say that’s completed.”

According to Lauch, there is no common theme among the stop work orders on the LRT project.

There has never been an order that stopped work on the entire LRT project. “This is a huge job, so it’s not unexpected that you’re going to have inspections,” Lauch said. “Obviously you’re going to have field visits, and you’re going to have proactive and reactive observations.”

Labour inspectors were investigating an LRT job site again this week after a crane toppled as it lifted a small concrete mixer at the eastern portal of the tunnel on Wednesday. No one was hurt.

A crew removed the crane Thursday night and had to do some work to reinstate the site, Lauch said.

The Ministry of Labour said it issued a documentation requirement to RTG and two stop work orders to a subcontractor, Dufresne Piling Company, related to the crane and concrete mixer. jwilling@postmedia.com twitter.com/JonathanWilling