METRO VANCOUVER - B.C.’s transportation minister blames the contractor who designed and built the new Port Mann Bridge for the damages and injuries caused by chunks of ice falling off the structure during Wednesday’s snowstorm.
Mary Polak said Kiewit-Flatiron failed to meet specifications in its contract with Transportation Investment Corp., which stipulated there be no ice or snow buildup on the bridge that could fall on traffic. As a result, she said, Kiewit-Flatiron will pay all the costs of upgrading the structure to ensure it doesn’t happen again.
“What we saw occur on the Port Mann was absolutely unacceptable and it shouldn’t have happened,” Polak said at a news conference Thursday at the Coquitlam office of TI Corp., the Crown corporation responsible for oversight and financing of the bridge.
“This was anticipated by us when we signed the contract with Kiewit-Flatiron. This is the responsibility of the contractor. The taxpayer will not be on the hook for this.
“We will not live with the bridge in that way.”
Two people were taken to hospital after separate incidents during the snowstorm. RCMP Sgt. Peter Thiessen said a female passenger in a vehicle was struck in the head by a chunk of ice that fell off the bridge’s cable supports and through her sunroof, while a male pedestrian broke his arm after slipping on the bridge.
As of Thursday morning, about 107 Port Mann Bridge motorists had filed claims with the Insurance Corp. of B.C., according to spokesman Adam Grossman, although he said not all are necessarily due to the falling ice and snow.
Mike Proudfoot, CEO of TI Corp., said tolls will be waived for drivers who used the bridge between 10 a.m. and 2 p.m., before the bridge was closed for four hours. The Crown corporation will also cover the deductibles of those drivers who filed claims.
For windshield damage from rocks, gravel or other flying objects, drivers insured with ICBC pay a deductible. Assuming $200 deductibles on those claims, TI Corp. could be seeing a bill in the range of $21,400 if they were all paid out.
Polak said TI Corp. and ICBC are also working together to determine a way to ensure taxpayers aren’t responsible for the rest of the claim costs, but wouldn’t specify how this would be done.
“These issues we have to address, but we’re confident at the end of the day that we can say taxpayers won’t be on the hook,” she said.
Polak, who said she was unavailable to speak to the issue Wednesday because she was travelling to Vancouver from the Okanagan, insisted the province had no responsibility for the situation. She maintains the province did not offer any design measures and had relied on the expertise of engineers to design the bridge to the specifications that were outlined.
“I’m not going to evaluate the design of an engineer,” Polak said. “We specify that in a contract; the contractor responsibility is to meet those.
“There’s no way a bridge of this nature and size should be defective in this way.”
The project’s design and construction schedule, released in March 2011, states that “cables and structure shall be designed to avoid ice buildup from falling into traffic.” Another line in the schedule also stated that: “Designs for cable and structure shall include effects of rain and/or ice buildup including the effects on cable vibration and fatigue life.”
Proudfoot acknowledged the plastic sheeting on the cables, which was to keep the snow and ice from falling on the bridge deck, didn’t work.
Proudfoot said TI Corp. will continue to monitor the bridge, and acknowledged it could be closed again depending on the weather.
Closing the bridge for a day could cost the company upwards of $165,000 in tolls, based on a rough calculation of 110,000 trips paying $1.50 to cross.
“The bridge will be open if it’s safe,” Proudfoot said. “We’re looking closely at the weather patterns.”
He said Kiewit-Flatiron is co-operating with the company and is “working “feverishly” with its engineers to find a solution to the problem, which could include anything from heated cables to vibration coatings.
“This is something they hadn’t anticipated,” he said.
The Kiewit-Flatiron General Partnership issued a statement late Thursday, saying it was also concerned about the recent weather issues affecting motorists on the Port Mann Bridge and the safety of the travelling public.
“With the recent severe weather conditions, it’s evident there is an issue that needs to be closely reviewed and addressed. Kiewit-Flatiron General Partnership is working closely with necessary stakeholders to identify and implement a solution as quickly as possible,” Kiewit Corp. spokesman Thomas Janssen said in an email.
Janssen was not available for questions.
Kiewit, which was also involved in the design and construction of the Sea to Sky Highway, is a privately held mining and construction company with offices in the U.S., Canada and Australia.
A Fortune 500 company, Kiewit has annual revenues of nearly $10 billion. Construction and engineering firm Flatiron, also privately owned, has annual revenues of about $1 billion.
Proudfoot maintains Wednesday’s weather was an unusual, extreme event, but both Polak and Environment Canada meteorologist David Jones said Thursday that it wasn’t unusual for this time of year.
Jones said the wind and the micro-climate around the bridge may be factors in the snow and ice buildup on the bridge cables, but added, “I don’t think the overall (weather) situation was really that extraordinary.”
Jones said the forecast in the next few days is unlikely to bring snow to the Port Mann Bridge area.
Meanwhile, Polak said the tolls will remain in place while the bridge is being fixed.
“Right now travel across the bridge is happening safely and people are seeing the benefits of time savings,” she said. “We will do everything humanly possible to ensure this bridge is not closed again.”
