Mercier project faces delay
Aging span would need extra work to hold heavy deck
“Wait a second – we don’t want to build a new bridge, we want to replace the deck on the current structure.” TRANSPORT MINISTER PIERRE MOREAU
The replacement of the Mercier Bridge’s deck will be delayed by months after plans for the work were found to be deficient and too expensive, Pierre Moreau says.
The transport minister denied a news report suggesting the delay is due to new degradation on the bridge, which was partially closed last year over safety concerns.
“It’s not a question of additional deterioration,” Moreau told The Gazette Thursday.
In 2010, Quebec hired a consortium – Pomerleau/demathieu & Bard S.E.N.C. – to do $58 million in work on the provincial side of the bridge.
That included $45 million to develop plans for a new deck and then carry out the replacement work. It submitted its plans last summer.
In December, Quebec hired Dessau, an engineering firm, to review those plans.
That review, submitted to Quebec last month, found the plans “were not optimal for the bridge” and would have required extra work that would add up to $24 million to the price tag, Moreau said.
The deck proposed was too heavy and “could not be supported by the bridge as it is now,” Moreau said.
“It would add a load that normally the bridge cannot or should not” handle.
“We said, ‘wait a second – we don’t want to build a new bridge, we want to replace the deck on the current structure,’” Moreau added.
The deck-replacement work was scheduled to start in the summer of 2013.
Moreau said it will be delayed for a few months.
The Pomerleau/demathieu & Bard S.E.N.C. bid for the contract was the lowest.
But if you add extra costs that would be required because of its design, its bid would end up being higher than that of the second-place finisher, Moreau said.
That’s why Quebec has decided to cancel the part of the contract related to the deck, Moreau said. Pomerleau/demathieu & Bard will continue other work, including construction of a new overpass and strengthening steel under the bridge, he added.
Moreau said Quebec will not pay the consortium for the work it carried out preparing the deck plans. He said the consortium will receive none of the $45 million.
Officials at Pomerleau, which leads the consortium, did not respond to a Gazette call for comment.
Moreau said Quebec will open a call for tenders for the new deck within weeks.
Will Moreau make the Dessau report public?
“In principal, I don’t see a problem with that,” Moreau answered. “But I don’t know what Pomerleau will do in the coming days.”
He said he will have to consider whether there any legal reasons why it should remain confidential.
Dessau has made headlines over allegedly faulty work plans. It is part of a consortium Quebec is suing over last year’s Ville Marie Expressway tunnel collapse. The province has said repair plans prepared by the consortium led to the collapse.
Pomerleau/demathieu & Bard S.E.N.C. was also hired to build the new deck for the federal side of the Mercier.
Quebec’s change of heart will have no impact on planned work on the federal side, said Jean-vincent Lacroix, a spokesperson for the federal Jacques Cartier and Champlain Bridge Inc.
Lacroix said the consortium is now building the concrete deck slabs, which are to be installed on the federal side this summer.
The federal side of the bridge – the section over the St. Lawrence Seaway and on the South Shore – was built in the 1950s and is of a different design from the provincial side, which dates to the 1930s.
Before the summer, Ottawa will reinforce the steel under its side of the bridge because the new deck is heavier than the old one, Lacroix said.
Two companies besides Pomerleau/demathieu & Bard S.E.N.C. were deemed qualified to bid on the Mercier Bridge contract in 2010.
The contract included $50 million in federal work and $58 million on the provincial side – $45 million for the deck replacement and the rest for other work.
Thepomerleau/demathieu & Bard S.E.N.C. bid was $108 million. In second place was Simard-beaudry Construction – S.M. Inc., whose bid was valued at $110 million. ariga@montrealgazette.com
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