Pickering Pickering GO Pedestrian Bridge | ?m | ?s | Metrolinx | AECOM

[jafri998]

While on the morning commute a go rep handed me a construction notice at Pickering GO. I guess the parking garage at the office tower and the bridge weren't enough because now they are creating a new parking structure and replacing the current main lot with an additional 1200 spots! It also is going to directly link with the bridge. I don't know how that's going to happen without extending the bridge over the bus loop. The whole thing is supposed to be done by late 2013.

http://www.durhamregion.com/news/ar...ion-to-affect-parking-at-pickering-go-station

 

[Hipster Duck]

Well, in an ironic sense, Pickering GO station is kind of TODish. The irony being that all the parking is on the station side, and all the office and commercial development is across the freeway. If it wasn't for that bridge, Pickering station would be just another drive-to wasteland characteristic of GO transit land use planning.

 

[dcaley]

noticed yesterday that it looks like the exterior framing on the bridge is being installed for the outer curved glass or whatever it is

 

[APTA-2048]

The curved aluminum panels are now going up. Apologies for the poor picture as I didn't notice until I got on the bus.

 

[FAC33]

The curved aluminum panels are now going up. Apologies for the poor picture as I didn't notice until I got on the bus.

The whole structure has just meandered along for months. The glass section pictured has been in place for a couple of weeks now. I have no idea why it's taking so long to complete.

 

[Mongo]

The whole structure has just meandered along for months. The glass section pictured has been in place for a couple of weeks now. I have no idea why it's taking so long to complete.

At a guess, I would say that a lot of the work had to be redone. I have walked through the overpass a number of times, and the workmanship of the metal supports for the aluminum panels was abysmal. The attachment points for the panels were visibly misaligned (up to half a foot or more from where they should have been -- instead of being all in a straight line, some randomly-located attachment points were well above, below, inside or outside the "standard" locations set by the correctly-located ones) and the welding was amateurish (some support beams were attached to each other by a single spot weld, with the rest of the hollow beam interior gaping open to the elements and already rusting). I saw at least one support beam that had one or more welds break loose, and was dangling down from the main structure.

So I expect that much of the support structure needed to be removed and redone before the aluminum envelope could be attached.

 

[interchange42]

Nearly fourteen months since the last photo update, and the screen looks finished across the main part of the bridge, but not over the stairs, etc.

42

 

[khris]

That's pretty sad. Are they not going to finish it?

 

[interchange42]

No reason to worry about that, it's just being completed slowly.

42

 

[wopchop]

Yeah, it is ongoing, but taking a while. From what I'm told, it has been a really difficult job for the cladding contractor.

I can certainly see why.

 

[interchange42]

From yesterday:

Who knew this would take so long to be built.

42

 

[ProjectEnd]

P. 496 (p17 in the PDF) and onward has details of the nonsense that occurred / is occurring here:

http://www.auditor.on.ca/en/content/annualreports/arreports/en16/v1_309en16.pdf

 

[AlvinofDiaspar]

The whole thing reads like a horror story. Quote (bolded for snarky hilarity):

For example, the contractor had no experience in installing the bridge trusses (a bridge truss is the metal skeleton that is the most basic component of the bridge), something that a contractor constructing a bridge would be expected to know how to do. In fact, it installed one truss upside down. Seeing this, Metrolinx project staff stepped in to manage the truss installation even though this was clearly the contractor’s responsibility. They managed the truss supplier and related sub-trades, arranged the delivery of the trusses, shut down Highway 401 during installation, and managed other aspects of traffic flow. Metrolinx staff also went so far as to find a hauling company to move the trusses to the site: work that all should have been managed by the contractor. The contractor was still paid the full $19 million in payments.

---

Metrolinx also discovered that the contractor built the stairwell incorrectly (in Phase 1). Because the stairwell had been built too wide, the cladding material would break if the contractor attempted to stretch it over the stairwells. The contractor did not fix the stairwell and, at the time of our audit, the problem still had not been solved. Metrolinx was working with an engineering firm to develop a cost-efficient solution to fix the stairwell problem at its own expense.

Metrolinx terminated the contract with the contractor, even though the stairwell portion of the job had not been completed. Nevertheless, Metrolinx signed a settlement agreement, and paid the contractor 99% of the contract’s original value of $8 million.

Also important to note the problem is also structural - namely going for the lowest bid and this:

4.2.3 Metrolinx Lacks a Process to Prevent Poorly Performing Contractors from Bidding on Future Contracts

Although it is rare for Metrolinx to reject contractors on the basis of poor performance, we noted that, in the case of the contractor discussed in Section 4.2.2 above, it did so because it felt it had sufficient documentation to defend its decision, if necessary, if the contractor took it to court—which in fact it did. Metrolinx told us that the legal burden of proof is so high that it cannot require staff to document poor performance to this degree on all projects.

Perhaps they should crowdsource the latter.

AoD

 

[Waterloo_Guy]

This pisses me off. If this had happened in the private sector that contractor would not have had it so easy. But it's only tax dollars, so why not?

 

[AlvinofDiaspar]

More from the Star, w Rebuttal from the contractor:

https://www.thestar.com/news/gta/20...estrian-bridge-ran-into-trouble-early-on.html

AoD