Information crusader digs for LRT paperwork

Rideau Transit Group keeps tight grip on records of $2.1B project’s problems

Ken Rubin wants to know what’s going on beneath the surface.

But the Ottawa access-to-information expert is hitting one roadblock after the next as he tries to get access to records showing problems that have arisen during the construction of the city’s largest ever infrastructure project, the Confederation Line LRT.

His battle underscores the level of secrecy, or confidentiality, that’s accompanied the building of city’s $2.1-billion light-rail line., due in part to the contractor’s tight control of information.

“You can’t bury your head in the tunnel,” Rubin said. “You have to come out and relate to people.”

Rubin is fighting to get complete disclosure of the “non-conformance” reports produced in 2015 and 2016 kept by the city on the LRT project.

Rubin said the city and contractor Rideau Transit Group should remember that it’s the largest project in the city’s history and that taxpayers want to know about its progress, even if there are blemishes.

He appealed to the information and privacy commissioner of Ontario last January after getting a sense that there were, in his view, delays by the city and RTG.

The city authorized the release of 64 reports in early August 2017 but Rubin continues to fight for the disclosure of more records.

The reports contain information about the deficiencies found in the construction and other processes.

Each report has details of the glitch and how it was fixed.

Dozens of inspection reports documenting deficiencies, such as bad welds and crummy workmanship, illustrate the quality control in effect during the construction of Ottawa’s LRT line.

The Citizen reviewed 64 “nonconformance” reports produced during audits of construction along the LRT line. The city sent the documents to researcher Ken Rubin after he made an access-toinformation request for all reports produced in 2015 and 2016. He is still seeking more records.

Such reports are common in the construction industry as builders’ work is inspected to ensure its quality.

Non-conformance reports — hundreds have been produced on the LRT project — can be made by the quality-control experts working either for the private contractors or for the city.

Substantially more will be produced by the construction firm itself, said Steve Cripps, the city’s director of O-Train construction.

According to Cripps, non-conformance doesn’t always relate to the physical construction of the LRT line. A report could be generated if someone forgot to follow a process, such as sending documentation to a department.

“When the system works right, it’s not supposed to be the city being Big Brother, saying, ‘I caught you and I’m issuing a non-conformance report.’ It should be all parties catching things and correcting them,” Cripps said.

It might seem odd, meanwhile, to have the contractor inspect its own labour and issue deficiency reports, but Cripps said that’s how quality management works.

Cripps said when the contractor doesn’t agree with a city-identified deficiency, the disagreement can be dealt with by different levels of the organizations. In the worstcase scenario, the disagreement goes to a formal dispute resolution process, which hasn’t yet happened with the Ottawa LRT.

During an inspection of an architectural concrete mock-up at Cyrville station, city staff wrote down several deficiencies, such as staining and discoloration. The contractor objected to the city’s analysis, prompting the city to fire back. “It will be more effective to work on resolving the numerous concerns expressed on the architectural concrete quality, taking into account that the architectural concrete pouring is well advanced on the project instead of objecting to this (non-conformance report),” the city wrote.

According to RTG’s written responses to Citizen questions, the consortium “maintains a rigorous quality management system in accordance to the city’s expectations” and international standards.

The consortium couldn’t provide information on the number of non-compliance reports that have been generated on the project, the number of subcontractors on the project and whether any subcontractors have been removed because of the quantity of deficiencies or the quality of workmanship.

The city recently retained an independent safety auditor, TÜV Rheinland, to make sure the LRT system has been designed, constructed and commissioned to safety standards. It’s not an unusual step. The firm will be working until the trains start carrying passengers at some point in 2018.

Cripps said his office is happy with the quality of construction on the Confederation Line LRT so far.

“When we do audits we’ll always find some things, but there hasn’t been anything of substance that shows a major breakdown in their (quality control) systems,” Cripps said. “That’s really what it’s all about, having the systems in place and the people to implement those systems.”

When we do audits we’ll always find some things, but there hasn’t been anything of substance that shows a major breakdown ...