Plessis Road underpass and widening project cost climbs again, now at $85.4 million

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This article was published 04/06/2015 (3814 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Discussions on Thursday over the much-delayed and over-budget Plessis Road project, left the area councillor with more questions than answers.

Transcona Coun. Russ Wyatt, who earlier this week called for an investigation into the $85.4 million project and the suspension of the city’s public works director Brad Sacher, left Thursday’s finance committee meeting unsatisfied with city officials explanation behind the continuing increase in the project’s costs.

The underpass and widening of the road originally had a price tag of $77 million, which rose to $83.8 million in March and now, according to an administrative report, has ballooned further to $85.4 million.

Sacher didn’t specifically address the $1.6 million at the meeting.

“They didn’t really pinpoint it on one thing and that is why, when Sacher (the city’s director of seems empathic that this should be the end of the cost increases, it is hard to buy into that logic, if you aren’t explaining how this last increased occurred,” Wyatt said Thursday after the meeting.

During the meeting, Sacher said complexities in dealing with the oil and rail companies, along with the fact the budget was based on only a class five estimate, had led to “the most difficult project in my 30-year engineering career.”

“When you are dealing with CN alone on this project, they are a very complex organization,” Sacher said.

Additionally, the project involves moving pipelines, which brings in Imperial Oil and Shell Oil into the fold, further complicating the matter, he noted.

“Not only ensuring nothing happens to that pipeline, but to ensure when they go to move it, they have to decommission many, many kilometres of pipeline,” he said.

Sacher didn’t specifically address the $1.6 million added to the project this month, but attributed much of the general cost increase to the city basing their budget on a class five estimate, which means the figure can increase by as much as 100 per cent or decrease by 50 per cent.

The project was originally to be completed by 2014, however the city was granted an extension by the federal government, which hinged its $25 million on a deadline – that by July 31 two lanes of Plessis would have to be opened between Dugald Road and Kernaghan Avenue, and by Sept. 30, 2015, four lanes of Plessis would have to be open.

Wyatt also questions the timeline of the new extension requested by the city, which would see the two lanes open in October and the four lanes of Plessis Road be open to traffic by September 30, 2016, which he described as a significant time gap compared to the previous deadline.

“Now it is going to take you nine or 10 months, when previously it was only going to take you two?” he said.

The report on the project was received as information, much to the disappointment of Wyatt.

He argues the committee should have sent the report to Mayor Brian Bowman’s executive policy committee or call a special meeting for councillors to discuss the issues further.

“Send a message that this is not acceptable,” Wyatt said. “There has to be a very clear message sent that this is not how we are going to run our capital projects anymore.”

The city’s finance chairman Coun. Marty Morantz described the project as one that “Murphy’s law was designed to apply to,” given all the issues with the build.

However, he admits the previous council could have gotten a more precise figure before moving forward with the project’s construction.

“I think it would be true to say that we should’ve taken a little more time before we decided to close that intersection to do a proper evaluation and get a proper estimate on what the issues and costs would be,” he said.

He said once the “dust settles on the project,” council can look back and see what they can learn from it.

kristin.annable@freepress.mb.ca