The province will use legal action if necessary to recover costs because it must repair construction repairs that were faulty.
The sequel to the repair job on the South Perimeter Bridge should finally begin this summer, as the province has a plan to end a transportation headache that was criticized this week inside both the Manitoba legislature and city hall.
The design for fixing the South Perimeter Bridge will take a few months, with work to begin in July.
The province began fixing the span over the Red River in 2006, when the westbound lanes were closed for repairs. But the appearance of cracks the following summer led Manitoba Infrastructure and Transportation to close those lanes again and keep them off-limits to traffic until it figured out what was afflicting the brand-new concrete.
In April, the province determined there was not enough reinforcement in the concrete and a design error by engineering firm UMA was to blame. A consultant was hired to figure out whether it was possible to further reinforce the bridge SEmD or whether all the work on the westbound lanes had to be redone from scratch.
Now, that consultant has concluded the westbound lanes can be reinforced with steel placed underneath the bridge, said Lance Vigfusson, Manitoba Infrastructure and Transportation's assistant deputy minister.
The design will take two more months, but work should begin in July.
"While there is no work happening on the bridge, there is a lot of work happening behind the scenes," Vigfusson said in an interview. "There are a lot of people who are concerned there is no activity on the bridge, but even when we get started, all the activity will be under the bridge."
Justin Swandel
When the cracks in the westbound lanes first appeared, the province filled them with epoxy as a temporary measure. But epoxy could not be applied during the cold winter months, when the province was still investigating what went wrong with the repair job, Vigfusson said.
To date, the province has spent $12 million on the South Perimeter project. The cost of the steel reinforcements, which will be anchored to the bridge this summer, remains unknown until the detailed design is complete.
"It's actually pretty innovative. It will provide a level of reinforcement over and above what was actually planned," Vigfusson said.
The province is negotiating with UMA to recover some of the cost of the construction problem. If no agreement is reached, legal action may ensue.
"The province will seek compensation through the courts if necessary," Transportation Minister Ron Lemieux said Wednesday on the floor of the Manitoba legislature.
The Opposition Tories have been needling the NDP government over the construction debacle, with River East MLA Bonnie Mitchelson complaining of the year-long delay in completing the project.
City councillors representing south Winnipeg wards are also frustrated, given the fact the Fort Garry twin bridges over the Red River at Bishop Grandin Boulevard SEmD only four kilometres to the north SEmD are also undergoing repairs. "Bishop Grandin was not supposed to be started until the Perimeter was done," St. Vital Coun. Gord Steeves said in an interview.
"If something like this was to happen within the city, there would be no end to the investigations and people trying to shine a light in every nook and cranny to see what happened."
St. Norbert Coun. Justin Swandel, meanwhile, used the South Perimeter headache to defend the city's plan to use a public-private partnership to repair the Disraeli Bridge and Freeway.
On the floor of city council on Wednesday, Swandel said the province could have avoided problems on the Perimeter Highway had the risks inherent in the project been transferred over to a private construction company.
The bottom line for motorists is both lanes on the South Perimeter Bridge should be open before snow falls in November. People angry with the delays to date should be heartened by the fact the province figured out precisely what happened, Vigfusson said.
"I look at this bridge like a person with a health problem," he said. "You need to have a first, second and a third opinion. You need to know exactly what's wrong before you start surgery."
bartley.kives@freepress.mb.ca
maryagnes.welch@freepress.mb.ca
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