City
What went wrong on Roncesvalles?
What started as an enthusiastic attempt to beautify Roncesvalles (and replace some very old sewer pipes) turned into a major inconvenience for residents and businesses long ago. And the project, which began in 2009 and was supposed to end by 2010, is still not complete. Delays have ushered in another round of construction this spring.
The expected completion date is now July 4th. This time the pressure to finish is strong — it's the third construction season and the Polish Festival is scheduled to begin in mid-September. To say that locals want to be able to celebrate without the presence of orange fencing and abandoned tools would be an understatement.
Sanscon Construction, behind much of the work on St. Clair, is blamed by some residents and members of City Council for mishandling the project. And many business owners are calling for compensation from the City for lost business. Area councillor Gord Perks hopes to make the necessary reforms to prevent delayed construction in the future.
I recently had a chance to ask Perks about why the project has dragged out so long and whether or not the new completion date is realistic. Here's what he told me:
What went wrong on Roncesvalles?
It's very simple what went wrong on Roncesvalles, the contractor chose not to put enough resources in the job to get it completed on its deadline. There were a certain number of days to complete the contract and he hasn't met them. That means he's now paying some penalties, and I don't think those penalties are adequate.
Sanscon was the same contractor that did the St. Clair construction, which also ran into problems. Why did they get hired again?
He did part of St. Clair West? Oh yeah, he did. Well, the problems on St. Clair West had nothing to do with him. The problems on St. Clair West came from a few factors. One of them was that they were making changes as they went. If you're marshaling the correct skill-set and equipment to go work on a street, and then all of a sudden "no, no, we have to bury these wires, so we have to stop everything," your costs and timing go out the window. So the work that this guy would have been doing wouldn't have been the cause of the problems on St. Clair West.
Because of the history of the way road work is done in the city of Toronto we're bound by a couple of problems. One is that it's a privatized service, so these are not municipal employees and we can't just tell them "you're falling behind, bring in five more guys, and get the work done." That's one problem with privatized services, you can't control their day to day decisions.
The second problem is because of a long history of people to the right of centre arguing that everything costs too much. We are required to take the lowest bid on a contract, so it doesn't matter what your history is on completing other work for the City of Toronto, so if you're a licensed, competent, legal bidder, we're sort of required by law to take you as the guy who wins the bid.
So unless he does something to disqualify himself from bidding on contracts, I'm not sure how legally you can prevent him. There is talk about bringing a report from city staff that gives council more control over how to disqualify people. I'm certainly keen to have that conversation. I've actually pulled together a group of people from the community who've been intimately involved in the construction and the design and that's one of things we're going to talk about, but I can't prejudge it. Another thing about the bidding process is that councillors are legally prohibited from participating in the selection of the winning bid, in order to prevent the kind of corruption that MFP left.
Will the construction be finished by the Polish festival?
It better be. I'll kill them if it isn't.
Lead photo by Rick McGinnis
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"We are required to take the lowest bid on a contract, so it doesn't matter what your history is on completing other work for the City of Toronto, so if you're a licensed, competent, legal bidder, we're sort of required by law to take you as the guy who wins the bid"
As well, contracts can be awarded regardless of past performance on other city projects, unless a vendor screws up royally...
so basically, anyone who's got a valid set of credentials to bid on a City of Toronto project can f*** city residents royally.
our tax dollars hard at work. Keep up the hard work City of Toronto Procurement..doing a fine job at the moment.
www.ubisu.com
If the city wanted to be serious, it (if it's allowed) would tender the process with payments ongoing as objectives were met. If an objective isn't met in a timely fashion, the company doesn't get paid (even for work already done) and a re-tender is put out to complete the work. This basic incentive may delay projects now and then, but companies will be more careful in the long term when tendering and completing projects at the risk of doing work for no pay.
Just deal with it. Stop complaining.
Or sell your home and move to the 905.
Stop laughing, there is such a thing.
"There is talk about bringing a report from city staff that gives council more control over how to disqualify people"
In the meantime jerkbag contractors will happliy zip Toronto taxpayer money up the DVP to their 905 mansions laughing all the way.
Since construction started we went from having one mediocre sushi restaurant to three sushi restaurants -- one of which is great!
Since construction
They need a big stick and carrots.
If the contractor comes in on time, then they get paid the bid amount. If the project is completed early then a bonus should be paid (%age of the total contract value, which would increase the earlier it's completed). Penalties should also increase with the amount of time that the contract runs over the projected timeline.
This built-in incentive/penalty should be mandatory for all road and public infrastructure projects that effect transportation infrastructure and local neighbourhoods.
Most construction contracts apply a "large" daily fine on contractors that can't keep their contractual agreements. It's obvious these guys are stretched way to thin do contracts this big. In the future check to see if they actually have the equipment and manpower, that's a start anyway. These guys are
just screwing around at our expense, make it "their" expense in the future please!
People need to understand that this project was never just 'fixing a road' - it was the heart of a community, and needs to be treated like the living thing that it is.
A friend who had to mothball his business saw weeks go by with heavy machinery just sitting there with no one to use it. There were interruptions in water service that lasted way longer then they needed to be. When a big project like this takes place in the heart of a neighborhood, it has to be treated differently from a 'plow and pave' job in the middle of nowhere
The problem is that the City wants to do 5 things at once - replace water, replace gas, bury hydro, rebuild streetcar track, redo sidewalks - but this is plainly a Roads Department incapable of walking and chewing gum at once.
Oh, shut up.
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lowrez In replying to a comment from Butterfried / MARCH 29, 2011 AT 2:13 PM
Ahahaha look at this idiot right here.
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How come BlogTO is leaving these comments up?
They clearly violate the comment policy.
I mean, if they can't do it right in 3 years above ground I'm sure EVERYTHING is kosher underneath. FOOL
Also in the same area the curbs are now too close to the streetcar track to allow parking on that stretch of road. Really wonder how all the business owners in the area feel about losing more that 50% of the available parking on the street.
Councillor Perks, any idea?
I am curious about the west side curb though, I can't count the number of times that I've heard the streetcar blaring its horn and blocking traffic while waiting for someone to move their vehicle.
Though I wonder if that was more due to the snow on the west side, and the inability to properly clear it due to that road block at Howard Park
With Roncy it had some bad luck but in the long run the street will be much better then it was before. The work needed to be done. This is from someone who lives along St Clair. The street is lightyears better then it used to be
Roncesvalles should be judged when it is finished, not while everything is still under construction. Having accurate facts also helps.
I think the street is looking great, and I can't wait to see it finished!
I actually had a great deal of trouble getting city garbage pickup before the big bins came in. I work long hours and the neighbours reported that city employees were tossing my blue boxes around and smashing them. Some disappeared. I had to complain constantly to the supervisor in my area and he brought at least 2 blue boxes to my door. This is in High park. After the big bins came in, and mechanization took hold the city service improved. This was due to mechanization and the reduction of city employees. Though it is still difficult to get large items picked up by city employees,but this provides more work for private "junk companies" of course.As it is probably meant to do.
Go to Google street view and look at the south end of Ronci. The construction has been going on so long its on Google street view! It's that old.
There have been plenty on months in the last 2 years when the weather was good and nothing was happening on the street. Sanscon dragged it all out and took the city for a ride, wrecking what was once a westend gem of a street.
F-the Polish Fest, that's in SEPTEMBER!!! What about another summer waisted by clouds of smoke and dust, early morning jackhammering, cut gas lines and water mains, and dangerous walking and driving.
Where do the owners of Sanscon live? Let's find out. Let's get a street address.
:)
Interesting!
Looks like the private sector are the lazy ones suckling at the teat of the taxpayer.
I swear there's a 12-card deck of angry right wing slurs that's randomly used to insult others.
Got to love the private sector, looking after their bottom line.
Why couldn't they have leveled the entire place and put a big box store area, with a direct ramp off the Gardiner? That would have been an improvement.
Joking aside, the city's incompetence is not limited to Ronscesvales or St. Clair: from planning on up to completion the city could not run a popsicle stand. Name one project that has EVER come in on time or on budget, private or public sector. It doesn't matter. The private contractors know the city does nothing and the city employees cannot be fired. It's the same middle and upper managers that screw it up every time.
As was reported the City strike had a large impact that could not have been foreseen. That delay has been documented and documented.
MOnty> You are completely wrong about parking and I would add that I have had no trouble finding parking on Roncy during the construction. The new parking configuration was approved by the local BIA and fits their existing parking plans. Here is some knowledge in their own words....
"While Green P has recently added some parking capacity to Roncesvalles, it is clear that this plan would change Roncesvalles into a street that prioritizes transit, cycling and pedestrian uses over car traffic and parking. This is in line with new city policy, as well as the BIA’s streetscape strategy of 2003. While the BIA would like to preserve parking where possible, the plain fact is that Roncesvalles will never be able to compete with other shopping areas on parking availability. To compare, Roncesvalles currently has perhaps 200 on-street parking spaces, while Yorkdale Mall has 7,200. But Roncesvalles can offer something that a mall never can: a pleasant and distinct experience for shoppers who walk, cycle or ride the streetcar."
Lets wait until it is finished before we start making grand accusations about how it has turned out.
I'd love to wait for them to finish to comment as you've suggested... so far I've waited 3 years. Let me know how much longer I have to wait before I have your permission to pass judgment you tool.
The only negative spin-off that I can foresee is the chance that traffic will divert heavily to Sorauren, but I'm hoping that over time, people who aren't commuting locally will learn to use Parkside, Lansdowne and the new and improved Dufferin for their north-south travel.
agreed 100%
And another issue that people often overlook is that when a street like Roncy becomes impassible, all the traffic moves to smaller side streets and causes more congestion and noise on strictly residential streets. The entire area is effected, and not just the street under construction.
With private contractors, there's actually an incentive to complete projects on time and control costs. If the penalties for not meeting deadlines aren't high enough to give the proper incentive, then simply make them higher. If it was done publicly with City workers, there would be no incentives whatsoever in the first place.
And as other commenters have pointed out, probably the biggest issue was lack of coordination between City departments. No surprise there, and hardly the fault of the contractor. I'm not saying the contractor is blameless, but he's certainly not the only bad guy here.
Because taking a rational, level-headed approach to problems is a less desirable approach to your hysteria, hyperbole and emotional overreaction?
I never realized that the alternative to arbitrarily picking the lowest bid that Councilor Perks is suggesting is to arbitrarily pick the highest.
It is quite amazing to learn that these are the only two possible options.
"Having worked in purchasing," you would, I am sure, have seen the occasional too-good-to-be-true price.
The point is, the lowest bidder should not automatically get the contract. Anyone who operates like that is simply too fucking lazy to read more than just the grand totals on the bids. And when they get burned, they deserve it.
The city builds in to every contract a performance bond. If you do not do the job correctly they can step in and get it done.
Plus they will NOT pay you under contract unless you have met certain criteria such as levels of completion.
The reality is Perks is whitewashing the entire mess protecting city/union staff.
The single biggest problem with EVERY city project these days is city staff. They have a poor work ethic, often little practical experience on a construction site and they are lax to do anything to press a job forward because then the city can be liable. The mantra from the legal department is 'find the slightest infraction to shift liability away from the city'. With orders such as that there is zero incentive for staff to help in any way.
When you pay peanuts you get monkeys.