City alleges negligence in lawsuit over bridge engineering

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This article was published 04/04/2016 (3509 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The City of Winnipeg is taking another engineering firm to court over a troubled civic project.

And once again, elected officials said they don’t know anything about the lawsuit or the problems that led to it.

The city filed court papers March 29 alleging Stantec Engineering was responsible for the March 2014 collapse of an earthen wall that supported the superstructure of the Sturgeon Creek bridge on Sturgeon Road.

The documents alleges the city incurred damages of approximately $2.2 million.

A civic report says Stantec was paid $1.5 million for its work on the project.

While problems with the new bridge are well known — the concrete road deck had to be rebuilt because of premature deterioration — there have never been any public reports to either the standing committees of finance or public works about the wall collapse and the impact it had on the project.

Coun. Janice Lukes, who has been chairwoman of the public works committee since November 2015, said she is unaware of the lawsuit or the problems the suit alleges.

Councillors in the dark

“The department has not provided any details whatsoever (about the lawsuit or the bridge wall) collapse to the public works committee,” Lukes (South Winnipeg-St. Norbert) said, adding she planned to contact administration officials for details.

Coun. Scott Gillingham, whose ward where the bridge is located, said he was told there were problems with the riverbank when the bridge was built but said he was told insurance was going to cover the cost and was not aware a lawsuit had been filed against the engineering firm.

The city is involved in a legal dispute with another engineering firm, AECOM, over serious structural problems at the Deacon water treatment plant. An old legal battle with AECOM over structural problems at the West End sewage treatment plant was thrown out by the courts in November. In both instances, the city alleged AECOM was responsible for poor design work and project mismanagement.

Like the Sturgeon Creek bridge problems, the administration had not informed councillors about the problems at the water treatment plant and the sewage treatment plant, which only became public when the disputes went to court.

The court fights with AECOM didn’t stop city officials from awarding the company a $16-million contract in January for its work on the $570-million upgrade to the North End sewage treatment plant

According to the most recent court documents, the city says Stantec was hired as the engineering consultant for the $15-million bridge project. The documents state city officials knew there was an old watermain located somewhere on the project site but not the exact location. The court documents allege Stantec advised the city it would not be feasible to determine the location of the watermain and it wasn’t necessary.

As it turns out, the city build the earthen wall on top of the watermain. The city alleges pressure from the wall on the watermain caused the surrounding soil to settle, which led to the watermain breaking and a “significant portion of the (wall) to be washed out.”

‘The department has not provided any details whatsoever (about the lawsuit or the bridge wall) collapse to the public works committee’ — Coun. Janice Lukes 

City alleges negligence

The documents allege “Stantec breached its contract and was negligent by providing engineering advice that fell below the standard of a registered Manitoba professional engineer.”

The allegations have not been proven in court and court dates have not been set. Stantec, which is headquartered in Edmonton but has Winnipeg offices on downtown Portage Avenue, has not filed a statement of defence.

This appears to be the first dispute between Stantec and city hall that has gone to court, based on a search of the Manitoba Courts online data base.

A civic spokeswoman said administrative officials would not answer any questions about why there had not been any administrative reports prepared for the finance or public works committees about the watermain and engineering problems alleged in the lawsuit, and would not comment on the lawsuit itself.

The project involved rebuilding the Sturgeon Creek bridge, located just north of Portage Avenue. The new bridge and road were raised three metres. Construction work was begun in 2012 and was effectively completed by the fall of 2013.

According to a civic report, Stantec was awarded an initial $1-million engineering contract for the project in May of 2010. In 2013, Stantec was given an additional $480,000 for additional services related to the project.

aldo.santin@freepress.mb.ca