Oops... $6M Calgary Bridge doesn't fit...

[nik-]

The funny thing is that the city went through everyone's desired "process" for the second bridge and we got a second rate ripoff of the early work of the designer of the Peace Bridge.

[MrMastodonFarm]

Never understood why people are against sole sourcing a project. When I put new kitchen cabinets in my house recently I saw the work some guy did at a friends, looked at his previous work and went with it. If you found a winner, you go with it.

[You Need a Thneed]

Did everything go smoothly? no.

There wasn't anything in particular very wrong about the process.

1. Council had previously identified and approved a pedestrian bridge in that location
2. Administration decided to build it, set a budget, and picked a consultant to design it
3. Being a prime location, city decided to hire a top of the line designer. In this case, the architect is also the structural engineer - additional cost of expensive architect is offset by having to hire one less consultant.
4. Budget wasn't exorbitant, barely more than a bare bones structure could possibly have been with the physical contraints of the site.
5. When problems arose, administration decided that delays were more acceptable than budget increases.
6. Final project is beautiful, and came in at budget, or within a few percentage points of it.
7. Council named the bridge a name that aligns with the theme of the area in which it exists. "Memorial Drive" "Poppy Plaza" "Peace Bridge"

Honestly, I don't know how the process gets criticised to the extent that it does.

[northcrunk]

QC departments are the WORST.

[V]

I'm just curious how they were allowed to sole-source. I'm sure the design pricetag was more than $75,000.

[MrMastodonFarm]

Originally Posted by V

I'm just curious how they were allowed to sole-source. I'm sure the design pricetag was more than $75,000.

Why wouldn't they be allowed?

[chalms04]

Originally Posted by 4X4

So much bridge hate in this city. It's weird. I think it'd be cool if Calgary developed some kind of bridge fetish, where companies or community associations would sponsor pedestrian bridges all over the city, and they'd try to one up the last one built.

Rome has fountains, Edmonton has mullets, Calgary could have bridges.

Pedestrian bridge dick measuring contest. I like it.

[JiriHrdina]

I love the Peace Bridge
But I also love complaining about it.

[Swift]

Originally Posted by Erick Estrada

The majority of Calgarians didn't want the bridge originally. City hall went ahead against the majority which you can understand would equate to some unhappy people.

Did we have a vote? I don't remember being asked my opinion. And even if "the majority of Calgarians" didn't want it, so what? The majority of Calgarians weren't the people who were ever going to use it anyway. I could just as easily say the majority of Calgarians don't want a school in Skyview Ranch, for example. Does that mean it shouldn't be built?

[Bagor]

Originally Posted by mrkajz44

For those that don't drive there, the issue is not that the traffic lights are 350m away with a crosswalk. It's the fact that people were not using the crosswalk (no matter how reasonably close it was). There are people running accross lanes of 5 or so lanes of traffic where most people are doing about 80. It was dangerous. And sometimes people on the road stopped (!!) to let the people jaywalk.

I think this is more about cutting down on those incidents than anything else.

If I recall correctly from my time living there you forgot to add the 'with shopping carts' part.

[FlameOn]

So all controversy aside, how are they going to fix this? And for anyone writing contracts like these, what kind of penalties are there for the contractor for screwing up royally like this?

[You Need a Thneed]

Originally Posted by FlameOn

So all controversy aside, how are they going to fix this? And for anyone writing contracts like these, what kind of penalties are there for the contractor for screwing up royally like this?

The fix almost certainly is to modify the abutments, probably not a huge task. The big cost is to bring in the crane a second time.

The penalty of not getting paid until it's done and working is usually enough penalty. If the responsible party isn't the party that has to fix the problem, the responsible party will generally have to pay for that as well.

[rotten42]

Originally Posted by SebC

But without the process, you don't get the Peace Bridge. You get boring.

I disagree. Using the right process still could have gotten you a world class bridge.

[V]

Originally Posted by MrMastodonFarm

Why wouldn't they be allowed?

All municipalities in Alberta are required to go through a competitive bid process for any services contract over $75,000.

http://www.tilma.ca/government_procurement.asp

Construction started in March 2010, though, so potentially the design contract was issued prior to April 2009, which is when TILMA came into effect for municipalities (although we were abiding by the guidelines prior to that). So if the contract was sourced prior to April 2009 the City would have violated their own internal guidelines by sole-sourcing, but would not have gone against TILMA. If that's the case I can understand how it was allowed.

[Bring_Back_Shantz]

Originally Posted by rotten42

I disagree. Using the right process still could have gotten you a world class bridge.

The St. Patrick's Island bridge would seem to indicate otherwise.
It's a nice enough bridge, but some of the other options were IMO a lot nicer, and it certainly doesnt' stand up to the Peace Bridge.

[Muta]

Originally Posted by FlameOn

So all controversy aside, how are they going to fix this? And for anyone writing contracts like these, what kind of penalties are there for the contractor for screwing up royally like this?

It wasn't the contractor, it was the design engineer that screwed up. The contractor built it to the drawings they have to work with.

As for the schedule, I don't think it's over its original completion date. I think it's actually on schedule for completion of early next month.

[FireFly]

Originally Posted by Muta

It wasn't the contractor, it was the design engineer that screwed up. The contractor built it to the drawings they have to work with.

As for the schedule, I don't think it's over its original completion date. I think it's actually on schedule for completion of early next month.

Except the sign by the side of the road says 2014....

[Muta]

Originally Posted by FireFly

Except the sign by the side of the road says 2014....

Yeah well, they may have been an early estimated time, but that may not be what the contract with stated.

[Table 5]

Originally Posted by Erick Estrada

The majority of Calgarians didn't want the bridge originally. City hall went ahead against the majority which you can understand would equate to some unhappy people.

You know what? Screw the majority. The majority of people are uninformed, uneducated and just plain ignorant about 95% of the issues that are out there.

Personally, I consider myself an expert on very few things. I can give you a professional opinion on most Graphic Design/Illustration/Branding related things, so you should absolutely listen to me there. I'm interested in architecture, cars, photography, hockey, and watches, so I can give you solid hobby-level thoughts on those things (but you should probably get a second opinion). Anything else, I'm not to be trusted. Don't asks me how to run a hospital, how to drill an oil well, or how to build a house.

The vast majority of Calgarians know nothing about good architecture/design and the engineering of a bridge...so why is it that important that every angry citizen out there be listened to? We all have our specialities, and things run best when they are done by people who know what they are doing. At your job, do things function better when the right people are allowed to do their job, or when everyone and their mom is involved? The more people you ask to be involved in a decision, the more average the outcomes tend to be. And when you want to beautify your city with new architecture, average won't cut it. There are no original ideas by committee.

We elect leaders to lead. Let them do their job. They don't need to run everything by the collective opinion. If you don't like what they are doing, feel free to vote otherwise at the next election.

[MrMastodonFarm]

Ouch, how's your butthole, EE.