Ongoing Calgarians complaining about pedestrian bridges thread

[burn_this_city]

Originally Posted by You Need a Thneed

Yes, the construction contract was tendered. Graham was the lowest bid. The febricator has a contract with Graham.

Again, improper welds do not change the scope of the project, and thus there will not be a change order to cover the cost. I highly HIGHLY doubt that Graham is going to get extra money out of the city.

You must not work in construction

[frinkprof]

Originally Posted by MacGruber

Buzzwords? How about "buzzphrases"

-Financial quagmire
-Waste of money
-Dizzying waste of taxpayer money
-Needlessly expensive bridge


Damn media. If only not for them I would have been completely behind this waste of taxpayer money.

Maybe not completely behind, but I doubt you would have had an opinion one way or the other.

What are your thoughts on, say, the Glenmore Water Treatment Plant upgrade or the Calgary Emergency Operations Centre?

Not exactly sure about the latter, but the former was considerably over budget.

[frinkprof]

Originally Posted by burn_this_city

You must not work in construction

I'm sure YNAT is more than capable of speaking for himself, but that is exactly what he does.

[Boblobla]

Originally Posted by You Need a Thneed

Yes, the construction contract was tendered. Graham was the lowest bid. The febricator has a contract with Graham.

Again, improper welds do not change the scope of the project, and thus there will not be a change order to cover the cost. I highly HIGHLY doubt that Graham is going to get extra money out of the city.

It is all dependent on how the contract was written. I have seen countless times where a contract/PO was not written clearly enough and there was the ability for the vendor to apply cost adders back in order to facilitate the delivery of the final product, regardless of the statements they would meet requirements initially.

All it takes is statements like "well, if we don't get extra money to cover to cost of these repairs it will add 8 months to the schedule"

The city will pay.

[Matata]

Originally Posted by Ducay

I'm not even going to touch on the crazy person's post above me;

Originally Posted by Ducay

There are a few key issues with the bridge and the process behind it, but the majority of opponents to the bridge just use buzzwords and issues pushed by the media hype against it.

When your argument devolve's to avoiding direct contact due to a feigned sense of intellectual superiority and then blatantly stating that people who don't agree with you are mindless sheeple, it's time to stop arguing.

[Ducay]

Yes, lets see, which side is more likely to be informed on the subject/industry?

a) YNAT, Frink

b) Burn, Matatata, Rick Bell & Calgary Sun Readers. The same people who claim that it is being built in Spain simply because Calatrava wanted to oversee it?


Hmmmmm.

Not saying the project is without issue, but jumping to dramatical conclusions without any real knowledge of the project, and saying "I wont walk on it out of principal" is a whole other ballgame.

There are umpteen other major projects going on in the city, all with other large issues and overruns, yet for some reason, this is the project the uninformed seem to see as the worst thing ever.

[burn_this_city]

I work in construction cost, but believe whatever you want. This joke has ballooned from 18 million to 24 already. Of all the steel fabricators in the world, it must be an amazing coincidence it was built in the hometown of Calatrava.

[Hack&Lube]

$24 Million and 2 years for a pedestrian bridge? Are you fataing kidding me? Surely, a freaking pedestrian bridge is something that this city, rife with construction and engineers and architects is able to do domestically.

Instead we get a Chinese fingertrap from a big name Spanish guy who insists it is built in his home town and shipped here. Ridiculous. I hope the thing rusts in a year.

[nik-]

Originally Posted by Hack&Lube

$24 Million and 2 years for a pedestrian bridge? Are you fataing kidding me? Surely, a freaking pedestrian bridge is something that this city, rife with construction and engineers and architects is able to do domestically.

Instead we get a Chinese fingertrap from a big name Spanish guy who insists it is built in his home town and shipped here. Ridiculous. I hope the thing rusts in a year.

Ah the Chinese fingertrap comment. It still makes me laugh.

[SebC]

Originally Posted by nik-

I still don't see the problem with going to an internationally renowned designer to get a bridge done. At some point can't you just look at someone's body of work and decide you want something from them for a public piece?

Especially, if the alternative is a competition judged by people who apparently have no desire to select anything vaguely interesting.

[MrMastodonFarm]

Originally Posted by Hack&Lube

$24 Million and 2 years for a pedestrian bridge? Are you fataing kidding me? Surely, a freaking pedestrian bridge is something that this city, rife with construction and engineers and architects is able to do domestically.

Instead we get a Chinese fingertrap from a big name Spanish guy who insists it is built in his home town and shipped here. Ridiculous. I hope the thing rusts in a year.

What the hell??

You're about a year and a half late with this comment guy,

[nik-]

Originally Posted by MrMastodonFarm

What the hell??

You're about a year and a half late with this comment guy,

I'm pretty sure that was just copy pasted from the comments section of a Rick Bell article.

[something]

Originally Posted by Matata

Canada Pop: 34.5 million
GDP: $1.56 trillion

Spain Pop: 46 Million
GDP: $1.37 trillion

Good thing the bridge is being constructed in such a more advanced, technological country. But it does help the high income population in the area get across the river without having to take one of the other bridges that's a 10 minute walk in either direction. Thank goodness for that.

I get the sarcasm, and I understand that you are angry with this project, but that is a terribly poor correlation you have formed.

Technological capital, as a very general and vague factor, is among a litany of other factors that contribute to a countries ability to "produce".

Comparing base GDP estimates and populating to a single entities ability to fabricate a steel bridge speaks nothing of comparative (much less absolute) advantage, in terms of the production of this bridge.

Maybe you have a point in there somewhere, but it needs to be ironed out. Otherwise this just comes across as semi-coherent and immaterial.

It really just sounds like your mad and you're not exactly sure why.

[TorqueDog]

Originally Posted by Barnes

In other bridge news, the St Patricks island bridge design was approved today. $20MM and designed by a Frenchman. Oh the humanity.

$5 million less, and it's a really nice looking bridge. And it wasn't designed by Caltrava who has a reputation for oddly designed bridges that take unnecessarily long to construct, have significant quality issues, and often go well over budget.

[MrMastodonFarm]

Originally Posted by TorqueDog

$5 million less, and it's a really nice looking bridge. And it wasn't designed by Caltrava who has a reputation for oddly designed bridges that take unnecessarily long to construct, have significant quality issues, and often go well over budget.

This is the winning St. Patrick's bridge right?

http://www.calgarymlc.ca/submissions...submission-29/

I prefer the annoying titled, but better looking, Peace Bridge.

[V]

Originally Posted by burn_this_city

So true, we have the same problems all the time. That why when the bids come in at work, we drop the high and low bidder and decide between the middle guys.

Your purchasers don't have to deal with TILMA then. From what I've seen in the age of TILMA, quality assurance, timeliness, plausibility, safety plan, etc. all goes out the window for low bid when it comes to either the CoC or CoE. It's brutal, and is costing the City a boatload of money in rework.

[TorqueDog]

Originally Posted by MrMastodonFarm

This is the winning St. Patrick's bridge right?

http://www.calgarymlc.ca/submissions...submission-29/

I prefer the annoying titled, but better looking, Peace Bridge.

How is the Peace Bridge better looking? I know this sort of thing is subjective, but the St. Patrick's Bridge has this smooth flowing look to it, something that looks very modern without being too obnoxious in contrast to its surroundings.

The Peace Bridge is a bright red, in-your-face thing. It's kind of like living in a house that had the interior decorated with subtle earth-tones, and putting a big pink couch in the living room. There are better ways of sprucing up the space without being loud about it.


The Peace Bridge looks like... well, like this:

[CaptainCrunch]

Originally Posted by MrMastodonFarm

This is the winning St. Patrick's bridge right?

http://www.calgarymlc.ca/submissions...submission-29/

I prefer the annoying titled, but better looking, Peace Bridge.

I think that compared to the St Patrick's bridge the Peace Bridge looks lazy and doesn't really inspire me.

The only thing that the Peace Bridge has is the name of the designer.

[BlackArcher101]

When are people going to stop arguing about something that is quite obviously based on someones preferences?

No, the bridge is ugly... this is why!
No, you're wrong, the bridge is a masterpiece, this is why!
No, you're wrong, it's hideous, can't you see?

Piss off already.

[CaptainCrunch]

Speaking of bridges . . . ah hell I was going to do another Fotze mom thing but my hearts not in it tonight.