Princess Margaret Bridge delays blamed on timeline

The delays in reopening Frederictons Princess Margaret Bridge are being blamed on the wet weather construction and unrealistic timelines, according to an official with SNC-Lavalin.

About 30 people showed up to a public meeting in Fredericton on Wednesday night to find out why the opening of the Princess Margaret Bridge has been delayed again, possibly until Nov. 15.

Fredericton drivers were supposed to be driving across the bridge on Sept. 5 but the $77.4-million construction project has suffered a string of setbacks.

Engineers originally blamed the wet weather earlier in the summer for slowing their ability to work on the bridge.

'They should have given us more time to do the work. This is basically ... a three-year project and it was compressed into two years.' Paolo Ermacora, SNC-Lavalin

While the poor weather was a problem, Paolo Ermacora, an official with SNC-Lavalin, the contractor responsible for the bridge repairs, said the company facedother problems from the very beginning.

Ermacora said the company should have been given an additional year to complete the massive project.

"They should have given us more time to do the work. This is basically, I would say myself, a three-year project and it was compressed into two years," Ermacora said.

The condition of the aging bridge when SNC-Lavalin took over the project was worse than expected.

In particular, Ermacora said the concrete in the trusses and the abutments were more deteriorated than the company believed when the project started. Thatdevelopment caused the company to take on projects that weren't part of the original plan, such as replacing the expansion joints.

"The steel plates that we had to do because it wasn't supposed to be done. The extra concrete that we had to make up because we couldn't leave it like that," Ermacora said.

"So we had to do some unexpected work too. That's normal in this kind of project."

Ermacora also said the Department of Transportation couldn't produce drawings of the bridge, so new ones had to be created.

Despite all that, Ermacora said the bridge will open by Nov. 15. But if the company can't finish the job by then they'll have to complete it in 2012.

Frustrated drivers

The Princess Margaret Bridge is one of the two main Frederictonbridges that cross the St. John River and connects the city'snorth and south sides.

The repeated delays have frustrated many of the estimated20,000 drivers who usethe Fredericton bridge every day and it has hurt many of the businesses that rely on that traffic.

The public meeting on Wednesday night was a chance for people to vent their frustrations over the delays and how the company has informed drivers about the problems.

Betty Blanchard, the director of sales and marketing at the Ramada Hotel on Frederictons north side, said the extended closure and the uncertainty surrounding the bridges future has hurt business.

"All the secrecy, it's too hard to do my job," Blanchard said.

The uncertainty over when the bridge would reopen has irritated many drivers, including Fredericton Mayor Brad Woodside.

The mayor asked for a meeting with the Department of Transportation and SNC-Lavalin earlier this week after hearing of another delay.

Woodsides frustration was echoed by people, such as Jerry Scholten, on Wednesday who went to the public meeting looking for answers.

"The date that is now being given isthat a date we can stand behind as a worst-case scenario?" he asked to the SNC-Lavalin official.