Toronto Union Station Revitalization | ?m | ?s | City of Toronto | NORR

wopchop said:
Not going to defend the City, but people take the announcement of completion far too literally.

More than likely they announced it was completed because the contract achieved "substantial completion".

This is a contractual term, which means that the property is fit for occupancy, the municipality issues Occupancy Permit, and the Owner or Tenant can take possession.
It does not mean than 100% of the work is completed. Not by a longshot in many cases.

I have worked many, many projects that achieved SC and has plenty of work left to achieve substantial performance of the contract.
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Have no issue with celebrating SC on the contract, but maybe they should hold an office party for that and not announce it to everyone. It’s not just small work left, if I walked through a station with hoarding everywhere, major passageway closed, most of the food and retail not yet open, I don’t know how I’d consider that renovation completed.
 
trtcttc said:
Have no issue with celebrating SC on the contract, but maybe they should hold an office party for that and not announce it to everyone. It’s not just small work left, if I walked through a station with hoarding everywhere, major passageway closed, most of the food and retail not yet open, I don’t know how I’d consider that renovation completed.
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I mostly agree. Politicians and Metrolinx love any chance to peacock in front of us.
But I believe a lot of hoarding has to do with retail fit out, which has nothing to do with the city contract. Those would be done by whomever is leasing the spaces.
Those spaces could be empty for years. Does that mean the station is not done for years because no one rented some spaces?
Of course not, that would be ridiculous.
 
wopchop said:
I mostly agree. Politicians and Metrolinx love any chance to peacock in front of us.
But I believe a lot of hoarding has to do with retail fit out, which has nothing to do with the city contract. Those would be done by whomever is leasing the spaces.
Those spaces could be empty for years. Does that mean the station is not done for years because no one rented some spaces?
Of course not, that would be ridiculous.
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I agree about the hoardings but it is worth remembering that the bits we all seem to see as 'unfinished' were in the original scope of the project and (some anyway) were removed from it to become stand-alone post-project projects. (Presumably so they can boast that the project was completed 'within budget'!) The full repair of the Great Hall floor and the Great Hall's new lighting was most certainly in the original scope. It now seems to be a separate SOGR project for 2022 and 2023. The repair and painting of the ceiling below the Great Hall would seem pretty central to the main project to me - but it remains unfinished with Q1 2022 as the new date. The replacement/refurbishment of the east and west Front St doors would also seem pretty central to the whole ('completed') project but.... Other things like the removal of the ramp from the GO area south of the Great Hall were also certainly part of the original project (in fact half of it has been removed for several years) but in this case they may have made a decision to stop until the work can be properly integrated into the Metrolinx plan for the new 'south concourse'. My complaint is not that they have not 'finished Union" as I accept that there will probably always be work going on in some part of the very large, multi-ownership and very busy Union Station complex, it is that they have not published a report on what is done, what needs to be done and when it is planned to do it.
 
Without knowing the exact scope of the original project, it is difficult to theorize as to exactly what was included in that project.
The fact that two contactors went bankrupt during the project would also complicate the project scope over time. It is possible that certain items were separated at those points by the bonding company to become separate projects.
There is also the fact that even after receiving Occupancy, achieving substantial performance is another matter entirely.
If an $824MM dollar job achieves substantial performance of the contract, there could still be $8.265MM in defects or corrections that remain incomplete. These would have to be items that obviously did not hold occupancy, or adversely affect the use of the project by the Owner.

I agree that the City should be more transparent.
 
wopchop said:
Without knowing the exact scope of the original project, it is difficult to theorize as to exactly what was included in that project.
The fact that two contactors went bankrupt during the project would also complicate the project scope over time. It is possible that certain items were separated at those points by the bonding company to become separate projects.
There is also the fact that even after receiving Occupancy, achieving substantial performance is another matter entirely.
If an $824MM dollar job achieves substantial performance of the contract, there could still be $8.265MM in defects or corrections that remain incomplete. These would have to be items that obviously did not hold occupancy, or adversely affect the use of the project by the Owner.

I agree that the City should be more transparent.
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There’s definitely a lot of challenges on the project, and having to choose the lowest bidding contractor is not their fault. The retail fit out is also not part of the station contract, so I understand if Bay is still hoarded up. However, passageways like the area between moat and the connection between the concourse lower level is still boarded up. I think to the public, at least all the station areas and passageway should be open.
 
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They’ve covered up the ceiling in the walkway between York/Via/Bay on the South side of the concourses. This was a new ceiling but would occasionally be partially removed for repairs. But this seems like larger repairs.
 
trtcttc said:
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They’ve covered up the ceiling in the walkway between York/Via/Bay on the South side of the concourses. This was a new ceiling but would occasionally be partially removed for repairs. But this seems like larger repairs.
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This was one of the ceilings with misaligned panels right? Hopefully whatever work they do above it they assemble it with a bit more care
 
A peak behind the hoarding of the new “foodie isle”. Looks to be the connection to the lower level of the York Concourse Food court. I think there’s supposed to be a grocery market in this area? Or was that cancelled?

Also I think someone asked about whether the food stalls are open for after the Leafs/Raptors crowd, and yesterday, they were all closed 30 mins before the Leafs game ended.

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trtcttc said:
A peak behind the hoarding of the new “foodie isle”. Looks to be the connection to the lower level of the York Concourse Food court. I think there’s supposed to be a grocery market in this area? Or was that cancelled?

Also I think someone asked about whether the food stalls are open for after the Leafs/Raptors crowd, and yesterday, they were all closed 30 mins before the Leafs game ended.

View attachment 368150View attachment 368151View attachment 368152
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Food market is still coming!
 
JasonParis said:
The VIA Concourse is by far the biggest disappointment of this entire project for me thus far. Although, the VIA1 Lounge is very decent.
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It looks like a half finished basement and not aligned at all in design with the other two concourses. At least they have escalators going up to the platform unlike GO.
 
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