CBS council trying to bridge the gap with angry Seal Cove residents
By Craig Westcott
The company responsible for the $3.14 million replacement of Seal Cove bridge in CBS is maintaining radio silence over construction delays that have put the project at least six months behind schedule.
Nobody from the Corner Brook-based company returned phone or e-mail messages last week as pressure from a local business and residents in the area piled up on council, which has been caught in the middle of the delays as it tries to get more information about when a special drilling rig will be brought into the province to bore holes in the bedrock alongside the river to secure the pilings for a new bridge.
Harbourside Consultants is overseeing the project on behalf of the Town.
Brook Construction has been paid some $480,630 plus HST in progress payments so far for site work and dismantling the old bailey bridge that had served the area since 1991 when an earlier span was washed out by a buildup of ice in Seal Cove River.
Deputy Mayor Andrea Gosse used last week’s council meeting to update the public on the status of the project, which has been at a standstill for most of the summer and fall as traffic along Seal Cove Road has remained cut off at the river with nearby Garden Road being used as a detour for residents on one side of the divide.
“Yesterday, Monday October 5, the contractor responsible for the installation of the new bridge returned to the site and is preparing for the drilling operations,” Gosse said. “We expect the drilling operations to start later this month. Council is not in a position to confirm a reopening date as of yet, but we’re working to make sure this bridge is opened as soon as possible.”
Gosse said council and staff are pressing for the earliest possible completion and will update residents as soon as there is something substantial to report.
“We understand and we share your frustrations over the lack of progress on this bridge replacement,” Gosse said. “The Town has taken steps to require the contractor to resume and complete this work without further delay. There are serious contractual matters here and it’s not appropriate for council to comment on them publicly… In the interim we ask residents to please understand the impacts this delay is having on local businesses such as Seal Cove Grocery, and we encourage everyone to support this long serving business in our community.”
Ian Lapshinoff, the father-in-law of Tom Dwyer, one of the owners of Seal Cove Grocery, attended the council meeting and afterwards asked Gosse if it was true Brook Construction didn’t have the right equipment to do the job.
“They estimated to do the project a different way,” Gosse said, explaining that when the company tried to sink the pilings to support the new bridge, it hit bedrock and couldn’t penetrate it. “So they went back to the consultant and said they needed to make another plan and Plan B was to get a drill rig. What you have to understand is, when a tender is designed, it’s designed for the scope of work, it doesn’t say what (equipment) you have to use.”
Lapshinoff said people in the area would like more information about where the drill rig is coming from and when it will be in place. “When is it going to happen?” he said.
Garden Road resident Steve Nugent said council should kick Brook Construction off the site and award the work to another company. He posited that council hasn’t done that because it broke the terms of the contract itself when it delayed the start of construction last year when parts of Seal Cove had to be evacuated because of a wildfire in neighbouring Holyrood. The project’s start date was then rescheduled to May this year and was expected to be completed within four months.
Gosse discounted Nugent’s theory.
“I don’t think so, but I will certainly verify (that),” Gosse said. “They (Brook) accepted that (delay) because of the extenuating circumstances and they came back this year prepared to do that project. So that is an acceptance (of the schedule change). I don’t think we broke the contract because they accepted to defer due to wildfires. That is an extenuating circumstance, and I think if that were put to a court, it would be questionable whether that (argument) would be reasonable.”
Nugent also accused council of not addressing the construction delay, despite the area’s Ward councillor Melissa Hardy and Mayor Darrin Bent, who was absent from last week’s meeting, having raised the matter at nearly every council meeting since the delay began.
Nugent argued that raising the issue in a general discussion is different than council formally debating a motion to take action.
Nugent said he has contacted two government departments, the area’s MHA, and council members looking for answers and trying to get action.
“Our major concern is the lack of transparency with our council,” said Nugent. “Am I wrong in thinking the elected councillors, our ward councillor and our mayor, are there to protect the interests of the people? It feels like they’re just working along with the Town employees to just kind of keep us from getting too excited as a group… My major concern is they won’t give us any answers… They don’t know when this apparent equipment that they’re waiting for is going to be here. I’m at my wit’s end. So, what happens now when January comes and there’s still no equipment?”
Nugent said residents have had trouble trying to get a meeting with council.
“I don’t know anyone that’s actually been talking to anyone from the Town. No one has asked us about our concerns.”
Hardy said she has always been available on the issue as she is with all issues. There was one day she did miss an e-mail from the owners of Seal Cove Grocery, she admitted, explaining it happened during a week when she was helping two family members deal with appointments connected to individual diagnoses of cancer. Hardy said she contacted Seal Cove Grocery afterwards and apologized for the delay.
“I’ve always been available,” Hardy said. “I’m disheartened that somebody would say that considering that I’m (available) 365 24/7. I’m always available. I’ve responded to everything I can respond to. There are some things I can’t respond to because of the commercial sensitivity… I really feel we are doing everything we can to get this business (Seal Cove Grocery) back up and running (normally) and get the new bridge in place.”
Hardy noted she makes a special effort to shop there herself, even buying items for her workplace in St. John’s. “It’s devastating, I certainly feel for everyone.”