Ongoing Calgarians complaining about pedestrian bridges thread

[CaptainCrunch]

Forget the $200,000, the Bridge costs could balloon to $30,000,000 ($5.5 over the $24.5) pricetag if Graham bills for the 15 months in delays that were not their fault.

If that happens this things gonna end up on court

http://www.calgaryherald.com/news/co...379/story.html

Dave Smith, executive vice-president of the Calgary Construction Association, said he has "no doubt" the firm will charge for additional staff hours spent bringing the project up to specifications.
This includes extensive repairs on the steel fabricators' shoddy welds that were flagged by city-commissioned inspectors.
"You can get a fixed-price contract only if the goods delivered are what they're supposed to be," Smith said.
The welding problems have been blamed on Spanish subcontractor Augescon, one of the fabrication companies the city pre-approved but which Graham Infrastructure hired, based on its low bid.
"What the city is likely going to have to do is go after the subcontractor," said Smith, who noted he hasn't discussed the project with Graham Infrastructure or city officials.
This could lead to disagreements that land in court, he said.

To me the below is pretty arrogant, Graham didn't do the welding, why should they just suck up the losses, or is the City implying that they're going to mess with their open bidding process?

Mac Logan, the city's transportation general manager, hasn't yet had any new budget requests from Graham ahead of the Santiago Calatrava-designed bridge's March 24 opening.
Logan referred to the company's extensive number of city contracts as he said Graham shouldn't come after the city for more public dollars. "They know the situation," Logan told the Herald. "Graham and the city have worked together for a long time, so I'm sure that they're considering their longterm working relationship, as well as this project."

[nik-]

So the city had a list of pre-approved companies to do the welding, Graham chose the cheapest, got shoddy work and now wants to charge the city?

Seems reasonable.

[RogerWilco]

Originally Posted by CaptainCrunch

Forget the $200,000, the Bridge costs could balloon to $30,000,000 ($5.5 over the $24.5) pricetag if Graham bills for the 15 months in delays that were not their fault.

If that happens this things gonna end up on court

http://www.calgaryherald.com/news/co...379/story.html



To me the below is pretty arrogant, Graham didn't do the welding, why should they just suck up the losses, or is the City implying that they're going to mess with their open bidding process?

NM, just need to stay out of this.

[CaptainCrunch]

Originally Posted by nik-

So the city had a list of pre-approved companies to do the welding, Graham chose the cheapest, got shoddy work and now wants to charge the city?

Seems reasonable.

City pre-approved the fabricator company, and the expectation is the same on a fixed price contract, that the company is able to deliever non crappy work and live up to the contract

Granham will go after the city for the lost time, thats the way the contract works. The city will have the option to go after the vendor fabricator

The welding problems have been blamed on Spanish subcontractor Augescon, one of the fabrication companies the city pre-approved but which Graham Infrastructure hired, based on its low bid

[nik-]

Maybe the contractor can just send Iberian ham as compensation

[RogerWilco]

The City has a huge pre-approval process. When people work with the City anyone on the list is considered competent. It is the City's responsibility for anyone on the list since no one not the list can bid on a project.

[First Lady]

Originally Posted by nik-

So the city had a list of pre-approved companies to do the welding, Graham chose the cheapest, got shoddy work and now wants to charge the city?

Seems reasonable.

I seem to recall the welds that were at issue, were the ones done in Spain... I could be wrong though.

[CaptainCrunch]

Originally Posted by First Lady

I seem to recall the welds that were at issue, were the ones done in Spain... I could be wrong though.

Nope your completely right, the welding problems weren't the welds done here to assemble the bridge, they were the welds in the pre-assembly components.

[octothorp]

Originally Posted by First Lady

I seem to recall the welds that were at issue, were the ones done in Spain... I could be wrong though.

I could be wrong, but isn't the general contractor responsible for the subcontractor's work in this situation? The city pre-approved Augescon (the Spanish subcontractor who did the steel work), but didn't force Graham to use them. That was Graham's decision. The city had a fixed-price contract with the general contractor, and all subcontracted work should fall within that. If Graham can recoup these increased costs from Augescon, that's up to them.

[RedMileDJ]

Originally Posted by topfiverecords

These are awesome. How do I get one? Contact the same e-mail address as mentioned above?

[topfiverecords]

Originally Posted by Red-Mile-DJ

These are awesome. How do I get one? Contact the same e-mail address as mentioned above?

No, I just made them in Photoshop.

[BlackArcher101]

Originally Posted by octothorp

I could be wrong, but isn't the general contractor responsible for the subcontractor's work in this situation? The city pre-approved Augescon (the Spanish subcontractor who did the steel work), but didn't force Graham to use them. That was Graham's decision. The city had a fixed-price contract with the general contractor, and all subcontracted work should fall within that. If Graham can recoup these increased costs from Augescon, that's up to them.

Exactly the way I see it. A lot of industries have pre-approved lists for certain brands or suppliers of equipment and it's up to the bidder to select which ones to use. The bidder, when turning into the awarded contractor, is responsible to ensure any equipment suppliers they chose provide equipment that is up to project specifications. I fail to see why the city should be at fault for a contractor selected sub-supplier's failure to meet project specs.

A pre-approved list doesn't guarantee a future ordered product is going to be correct, it means they have gone through screening and are known to be compentent on previous jobs. This doesn't allow a contractor that uses them to pass the buck to whoever made the list.

[getbak]

Originally Posted by topfiverecords

No, I just made them in Photoshop.

Put them on Cafe Press and send a link to the Sun: http://www.cafepress.ca/cp/info/sell/?refId=27

You'll get rich.

[V]

You have no idea how bad I want you to reply to most of the posts in this thread.

[BlackArcher101]

Originally Posted by fotze

God, I want to reply to this post.

Originally Posted by V

You have no idea how bad I want you to reply to most of the posts in this thread.

Oh for frick sakes. That's like saying "I have a secret but I'm not going to tell you" even though we didn't ask you.

[RatherDashing]

Originally Posted by CaptainCrunch

City pre-approved the fabricator company, and the expectation is the same on a fixed price contract, that the company is able to deliever non crappy work and live up to the contract

Granham will go after the city for the lost time, thats the way the contract works. The city will have the option to go after the vendor fabricator

Do you have a source for this? As I understand it, within a lump sum contract the general contractor (Graham) should be responsible for the work of the subcontractor (Augescon).

[You Need a Thneed]

Originally Posted by RatherDashing

Do you have a source for this? As I understand it, within a lump sum contract the general contractor (Graham) should be responsible for the work of the subcontractor (Augescon).

Yup, Graham is responsible for the subcontractor's work. If Graham wants to recover costs, they need to go after the fabricator, not the city. I have no idea how they think they could get any more money out of the city. I suspect that they have no plans to ask the city for more money.

[Bigtime]

You Need a Thneed drops a boatload of knowledge on Herald scribe Jason Markusoff:

http://blogs.calgaryherald.com/2012/...ontract-crack/

[V]

I would assume Graham takes their subcontractor to court and it goes from there. I find it odd that Graham would even mention the City for anything that their sub is responsible for. I'm guessing they're just trying to leverage an uneducated public into pressuring the City, or some sort of nonsense.

I just find this bit very strange:

However, I think it is quite obvious to see that Augescon was and is capable of doing the work well, and fully worthy of being prequalified.

What part of that is obvious? They did a terrible job. The only thing I find obvious is that they underbid the project, performed shoddy work and burned Graham in the process. Maybe they are a competent contractor, but they sure didn't make their case very obvious with this project.

In the end, Graham picked the low bid and it burned them. It's their own fault. A little bit of common sense could've saved them here.

[Bigtime]

Aerial shot taken yesterday:



From: http://workabove.com/onthefly/2012/0...-coming-along/