China’s Jiangsu Zhongtai Steel Structure Co. Ltd. has been forced to halt fabrication of steel for Victoria’s new Johnson St. Bridge after inspections found it was not being built according to design specifications. This means the bridge opening will be pushed back to a least January, 2016 a delay of 5 months. Ami I surprised by this development? No, not really as the project has been beset with problems right from the start. Am I surprised to hear the steel is from China? Yes! Astonished, actually.
Conceptual drawing of the new bridge
The old “Blue Bridge”
Everyone involved is now blaming everyone else, of course, but the main liability appears to lie with PCL Constructors Westcoast who, as the main contractors, made the decision to have the steel fabricated in the Jiangsu province of China. I know almost nothing about steel fabrication but I know enough to realize that if I wanted a bridge to last for over 100 years as called for I wouldn’t have the steel made in China. That goes for dog food, kids toys and tires too!
The new bridge will be the largest single-leaf bascule bridge in Canada – and one of the largest in the world. The mayor of Victoria maintains that the city has a fixed price contract of $63.2 million to build the new bridge. Engineers, consultants and contractors are already clamoring for more money due to “unexpected” events and delays caused by others. My guess is that by the time all is said and done the cost of this fancy new bridge will exceed $100 million.
Construction is well under way…but is now halted
I wrote about the trouble plagued process to replace the beloved old Johnson St. Bridge in my blog titled Victoria’s Iconic ‘Blue Bridge’ Is Toast way back on Nov. 25, 2010. At that time voters in the city went to the polls and voted by a margin of 61% to approve borrowing the money needed to replace the 86-year-old Johnson Street Bridge. I wonder what the vote would have been if it had been known the steel was coming from China?
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