Contractors building two key bridges in Edmonton are facing millions of dollars in late-completion penalties and the recent decision not to work on one of the bridges during winter will add to that project's delay.
City officials announced in late October that they would be shutting down construction over the winter on one of the bridges, a 100-m-long steel structure which spans a major artery in Edmonton. The news was particularly tough for the contractor, a part of Calgary-based Graham Group, which has been hit with penalties of $11,500 (C) a day since early October, when the new 102 Ave. Bridge was originally slated to open.
The project timetable began to unravel last spring, when bolted sections on several girders deflected during erection, bringing construction of the $32-million (C) project to a halt and triggering a third-party review by city officials.
Now that bridge is not expected to open until fall, 2016.
Late Arriving Walterdale Bridge Sections
Meanwhile, contractors building the city’s new $155-million (C) Walterdale Bridge over the North Saskatchewan River are grappling with their own major delay, with traffic not expected to flow across the structure until late 2016, roughly a year later than planned.
The prime contractor, the Acciona/Pacer Joint Venture, has been hit with $10,000-a-day penalties which will continue until the 206-m-long steel truss bridge opens. City officials have estimated the penalties could reach the $5-million mark before the bridge opens.
“There is no fine cap for the contractor,” wrote a spokeswoman for the city of Edmonton. The contract beween the city and Acciona/Pacer "transfers the risk of the delay to the contractor.”
建造on the Walterdale Bridge ran into serious trouble when a South Korean steel fabricator for the sections of the bridge’s arches and deck fell months behind. When the remaining pieces to assemble the bridge’s central arch finally arrived during the past few months, it was too late to prevent the project from being pushed back a year.
目前尚不清楚谁对延误有错。
That bridge’s 950-ton central arch will be floated on barges across the river in mid-November and kept in place by berms placed on either side of river. A pair of lift towers will raise the arch into position. In spring crews then will start putting the bridge deck into place.
即便如此，一些主要作品尚未到达加拿大，其中包括“桥梁甲板和共享用途的钢铁”，该市的发言人写道。“甲板的碎片已被涂层，并准备从韩国发货。”
Works Suspended on 102nd Ave. Bridge
Graham Construction和Aecom，102的总承包商nd大道桥将在整个冬季暂停工作。埃德蒙顿官员认为，在雪季节继续工作是不安全的。
A tent-like structure would have to be built over the bridge in order to warm it for construction to continue in the winter, the city’s chief engineer told the Canadian Broadcasting Corp. But that might have caused damage to the deck while posing a potential hazard to motorist driving on the highway below the bridge, according to the report.
市政官员在声明中指出，承包商一直在争先恐后地弥补浪费的时间，多个轮班在桥梁项目上工作了多个小时。
建造came to a halt on the bridge this spring when three girders buckled as they were being installed, forcing the closure of the busy east/west highway corridor underneath.
梁通过“加热伸直”修复。
最高集团首席运营官保罗·祖比克（Paul Zubick）说，其中两个梁的状态相当好。它的位于埃德蒙顿的桥梁部门正在102nd Ave.桥上进行钢勃起。
祖比克说，对第三局的损害更为严重，增加了“塑性变形”，顶部法兰的扭结。
为了修复变形，Supreme的钢制造商开始使用，从而加热了偏转区域的光束。热量通常会朝一个方向扩展，然后冷却，将其朝相反的方向收缩回形状。
The beams were then inspected and reviewed before being brought back to the construction site.
一个城市的报告,7月发布,还着重谈到the perceived cause of the girders’ deflection, blaming it on mistakes allegedly made by Supreme in bracing made by the fabrication and erection. Barry Belcourt, Edmonton’s transportation construction director, told various media outlets that the city’s third-party investigation showed that too little permanent bracing was in place at the time of the deflection in March.
The subcontractor installing the steel beams misinterpreted “the precise bracing requirements between the last four girders,” claims a statement on the transportation department’s website.
On the release of the second-to-last girder, the spacing braces failed, causing lateral tortional buckling, city officials claim.
但是，Supreme的Zubick反驳说，原因仍在审查中。
“It’s still in front of the insurance company, he said. “We have submitted some information.”
