New Plan To Twin Simon Bridge

Monday, November 20, 2006 10:35 AM

Simon Fraser Bridge, used by 22,000 vehicles a day (opinion250 photo archive)

The Ministry of Transportation has come up with a new plan to carry on with the twinning of the Simon Fraser Bridge.

Break down the components.

The Ministry will start with a call for proposals to finish the design and engineering work. The object is to have the design ready for tender early in the summer of 2007, with construction starting that summer and the twinning to be complete by the spring of 2009.

The project was initially tendered as a design-and-build project to be
delivered under one lump-sum contract. The lowest bid came in more than $15 million dollars over the $32.5 million dollar budget.

The Ministry figures splitting the tender into two components will open the doors to more competition and smaller contractors.

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Posted on Monday, November 20, 2006 10:35 AM in News by 250 News

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Comments

Posted by: acrider54 on November 21 2006 6:33 AM

Still waiting...............

Posted by: Marty on November 21 2006 6:48 AM

Instead of 15 million over, this time it will only be 14.999999999 million over what they have budgeted....LMAO

Posted by: owl on November 21 2006 9:21 AM

Give me a price on a house .....

Versus give me a price for this house that I have drawings for .....

Which one do you think the house builder has more risk when he puts a price on paper and signs a contract with you?

In the construction and most other businesses, the greater the unknown, the higher the risk, the higher the price quoted to make sure they cover their butts.

With a set a drawings to base their tenders on, they can get subcontractor prices on virtually everything since the components are then specific and known. Without that, the steel contrractor, for instancence, does not know the size of the members, the number of the members, and the installer does not know how many connections and the configurations of the connections, etc. etc. So each subcontractor would have to bid on a huge unknown, thus introducing a huge "fudge factor" or contingency.

In an economy of escalating costs, I do not see how anyone who knows their business did not understand the most basic of principles of the construction industry.

So, now we have a delay. Wonder how much the delay has cost at a time of escalating prices. Maybe steel will go down in price.