Feds to Region: You’re on your own with bridge overruns
The federal government won’t consider Niagara Region’s request for additional funding for the Burgoyne Bridge replacement project.
In a letter, Marie-Claude Petit, the federal director of transportation infrastructure programs, reminded the Region that Ottawa had already said it would not fund any cost overruns in its approval-in-principle in 2012.
“Both Infrastructure Canada and Transport Canada’s policy of not funding cost overruns has been uniformly applied across the country,” she wrote to Ron Tripp, Niagara’s commissioner of public works. “In light of this policy, your request for additional federal financial resources for the Burgoyne Bridge replacement project will not be considered.”
Tripp was directed to ask for additional funding to cover one-third of the cost.
The bill for the bridge is now in the $93-million range, Tripp said. The preliminary estimate for the bridge was $59.5 million, which was divided into thirds between the federal government, the province, and the Region and St. Catharines.
Tripp told the public works committee that he wasn’t aware of any instances for which the federal government had stepped in after the fact to help cover overruns.
“Well, we had to try,” Niagara Falls Coun. Bob Gale said at Tuesday’s committee meeting.
Regional Chairman Alan Caslin wondered aloud how the original application for funding could have been made without proper engineering and design studies.
“Had we waited until the appropriate time, and got the correct estimates, we would have got the proper funding for what we needed for the bridge and not be scrambling around,” Caslin said. “It’s a shame.”
St. Catharines Coun. Bruce Timms said the federal government made special infrastructure funding available to stimulate the flagging economy, but with finite amounts of money and tight deadlines. It was looking for shovel-ready projects in which to invest.
“They told us they didn’t have enough money for all the applications they had received,” Timms said. “They told us to get your application in reasonably quickly, with the best engineering estimates you can provide, before the fund is used up.
“We ended up with $18 million from the feds and $18 million from the province. Hindsight is 20/20. We did as much as we could to get everything we could out of that federal funding. We knew that we had to replace the bridge.”
At the time, there were engineering reports detailing the deteriorating condition of the 100-yearold original Burgoyne bridge, and what it would cost to shore it up if the replacement was delayed. The crossing is a major east-west artery in St. Catharines.
In his letter, Tripp explained several factors increased the overall price tag on the project, including the requirement to maintain both pedestrian and vehicular traffic during the build. The contractor ended up having to stage the work, and the old bridge required “significant engineering and monitoring requirements” to remain stable during the construction of the new bridge.
Adding to the problems, and the final bill, were some unforeseen restrictions on the number and location of foundations and piers for the new bridge. Those restrictions were caused by both environmental regulations tied to Twelve Mile Creek, and the Ministry of Transportation, which wouldn’t let the contractor locate piers within the Highway 406 right-of-way, in case the ministry wants to expand the highway in the future.
That resulted in the Region having to build a bridge that has the capability of carrying both pedestrian and vehicular traffic over Twelve Mile Creek and Highway 406 on a single 125-metre span without supports, Tripp wrote.
There were also complications with the design and construction of those foundations. The complications were only discovered after a detailed geotechnical investigation was completed.
Two problems the geotechnical study revealed were just how poor the quality of the soil in the valley was, and the discovery of an aquifer “located between the sound bedrock and surface.”
Both forced engineers to shift from conventional foundations to “very robust reinforced concrete caisson foundation,” which came with an increased cost.
Another related factor was a stability issue with the existing south and north slopes of the valley. That required the use of “nonconventional lightweight backfill materials” for the approaches to the bridge.
The Region has sent the same letter requesting more funding to the province. It has yet to hear back.