Quote:
Originally Posted by Stay Golden
The cost of the bridge is one thing which according to polls 98% of Calgarians agree 25m was wasted and the bridge was not even needed.
The location was extremely poor. This was not a placement that made any logic what so ever.
The thing that bothered me the most was how this project was closed off to ALL outside and local contractors. There was no open tendor that cityhall allowed any other engineering companies to bid on.
From what I know from dealing with Graham, PCL, Devitt, SNC, Aecon etc that projects of this magnitude are always tendered.
Bronco and Dru Farrell keeping this as a exclusive contract to Calatrava should have been shut down from the start.
Very unscrupulous practice right from the beginning and was forced on the city.
It was the unethical management by City Hall on this project that I feel should have shut this down. Not the cosmetics of the bridge or cost that is an entirely seperate issue to itself.
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FACT: $25 Million was not wasted, we got a perfectly functional bridge out of it.
FACT: The bridge is needed, Existing pedestrian crossings are narrow, and a gap of 1 km between bridges is too much right across from downtown.
FACT: The location was agreed to by council in the Centre City Plan, which preceeds any talk of the peace bridge. As is the last answer, 1 km between bridges is too much for being right across from downtown.
FACT: The bridge was open to all local contractors.
FACT: Sole sourcing of design contracts happens all the time, for good reason. It saves lots of money and hassle.
FACT: the construction of the bridge was tendered, the subtrades were open to anyone, etc.
FACT: A basic bridge for this location would have cost $15 million (at least), not $2-5 million as some people would say.
FACT: If the city hadn't hired Calatrava, they would have hired more than one other engineering/architecture firm, plus they would have kept the 1% for art as a separate item.